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These documents are intended to explain how to write web pages that interact with a Java-enabled web server.

In the approach explained here (WELD), there are some conceptual similarities to Microsoft's Active Server Pages (ASP) but WELD is much simpler to use and is compatible with Java on any platform instead of requiring proprietary software on Microsoft WINTEL platforms.

The WELD approach also is more powerful than ASP/JSP and provides a clean separation between the work that the Java programmer needs to do and the work that should be done by a web usability expert (aka "web page designer").  The web usability expert creates pages that include dynamic content that is supplied by the Java programmer.  The Java programmer easily writes commands and variables which are made available to the web usability expert.

See Jakob Nielsen's book "Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity" if you are interested in why this separation is so important.  Unfortunately, many web page designers think they are programmers.  Instead of worrying about programming, they should focus on the skill that presently needs the most attention: web usability.  In fairness though, (and probably a worse problem) many programmers think they are web usability experts.

ContentsIntroduction

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Modified: Wed Apr 19 06:00:17 EDT 2000