On 8/16/02 9:46 PM, "Nick Simicich" <njs@scifi.squawk.com> wrote:
> Now, let's think about this. It is impossible to do a good archive on the
> web because of round trip time, but the fact that gmane is at the other end
> of a Round Trip is not a problem?
>
> I don' get it, Lucy. Something is at work here other than round trip time.
I do. Think about how an iMap client works (or a usenet client) vs. a web
page. As you navigate the web page, you're doing a lot of loading new pages
and refreshing. With iMap and usenet, you download the key header
information and then the client manipulates it.
With web, you have a constant stream of relatively slow updates. With iMap
and NNTP, you have a slower startup time to load the data, but faster
browsing. And from a user perception view, that slower startup time can be a
lot less intrusive than constant small delays.
But that can be minimized, I think, though careful use of frames. I'm not
sure I'd go all the way to the javascript browser, IMHO. You're better off
offering NNTP or iMap and not trying to rebuild those browsers in
Javascript.
>> (Which indicates to me that the real future of archiving of mailing lists
>> is in read-only IMAP folders.)
>
> Which are also on the other end of a round trip interaction with a server.
But they're accessed in very different ways.
> CGI? Essentially, the assertion is that an imap client or a nntp client
> can search a bunch of files and return the right ones in a short enough
> time (including the milliseconds for the server RTT) and that is
> acceptable, but you can't plug that same code into a web server and have it
> return the files? I really do not think that server RTT has anything to
> do with it.
To some degree you're right, Nick. But it's how the two styles of interfaces
work that is the key here. One frontloads the delay, the other spreads it
out over the session. To most users, the latter will FEEL slower, even if
it's not. It's one of those cases where perception matters more than
reality.
--
Chuq Von Rospach, Architech
chuqui@plaidworks.com -- http://www.chuqui.com/
Very funny, Scotty. Now beam my clothes down here, will you?
Follow-Ups:
References:
|
|
