Instructors' Guide

1. The Web is essentially a client/server architecture. Objects play an increasingly important role, to extend client-side applications, server-side application and to enhance the technological infrastructure for the Web itself.
2. See section Microsoft for a description. As an advantage one may mention that it is a powerful environment, with a large installed user base. A clear disadvantage is that the proposed architecture is tightly connected with one particular platform, Windows 95/NT.
3. Java and CORBA may be used for a smooth extension of Web applications with (distributed) object facilities, as illustrated in slide java-orb and slide steps.
4. Computation on the Web is much more indeterminate than computation in traditional object systems. In comparison with LAN client/server systems delay and response times are far less predictable.
5. See slide api-requirements.
6. See section DOM
7. See section agent-framework.
8. Two basic issues arise: (1) syntactic issues, that is how to incorporate new media into Web documents, (2) semantic/operational issues, that is how to provide the operational support fort the new media. With the introduction of XML and XSL (a powerful stylesheet formalism for XML) there seems to be generic support for tackling these issues. Another way to provide such operational support is to write a plugin for the various browsers and (client) platforms. As an example, see section Jamming.