rich client

An application in the user's computer that retrieves data from the Internet; however, the program code is not a script embedded in a Web page. The rich client is programmed in a traditional programming language such as C/C++ and has complete access to all the functions in the operating system.

The First Web Programming - A Step Backward
After the Internet exploded in the mid-1990s, countless applications were converted to Web server architectures that relied on the Web browser for the user interface and JavaScript and VBScript programming scripts embedded in Web pages. Such browser-based applications exhibited "page-at-a-time" behavior. The entire page had to reloaded each time any data was sent to the server.

Moving Forward
As the Internet became mainstream, scripting languages were enhanced to deliver more of the functionality of regular programming languages, and AJAX came along to make Web pages work with more speed and fluidity (see AJAX). Nevertheless, such "rich Internet applications" still run from the Web browser (see rich Internet application and smart client).

Our Own Rich Client

Since 1990, the software for this Encyclopedia has been available as a Windows application. The user sees two scrolling windows, a lookup routine and a handful of features, but under the covers, the program takes up more than 500 pages of C code. The continuous scrolling of multimedia objects from A to Z is a sophisticated architecture that requires access to many low-level Windows functions.

In 2003, Computer Desktop Encyclopedia was turned into a rich Windows client. With "CDE on the Web," the software and indexes are installed in the client one time, and all text and graphics as well as index updates come from our Web server. As a rich client, the program retains all the features users have loved in the local and LAN versions.

CDE on the Web

Our rich client resides in the user's Windows machine, but all text, images and index updates come from a Web server.