two-way communication in html

Maurizio Codogno writes:
 > As everybody of us know, html is a "monodirectional" protocol -- in the sense
 > that the server cannot initiate a response by itself, but it has to wait
 > for a http request from the client.
 > 
 > (no, this is all wrong -- what I want to say is that with a HTML browser
 > you have to click to reload a page, otherwise it doesn't happen anything).
 > 
 > I (pronunciation: "my boss") would like to investigate how the thing could
 > be changed, in order to have a real "live" environment. Supposing for the
 > moment to stick with unix systems and reasonable root powers :-), the first 
 > ideas which came to me were the following:

Wedging this into HTTP seems like a bad idea. HTTP is an
information retrieval protocol. For conferencing, look at
protocols like IRC[1] or the MUD stuff. Maybe even mbone channels.

I think within 6 months to two years, you'll see URLs
like:

	irc://undernet.org/linpeople

Just like you see telnet:... URLs today.

Dan

[1] http://mistral.enst.fr:80/~pioch/IRC/IRCprimer/
[2] hmmm... can't find a reference to MUD usage on the web...
	anybody want to chime in?

Daniel W. Connolly        "We believe in the interconnectedness of all things"
Research Technical Staff, MIT/W3C
<connolly@w3.org>             http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/People/Connolly

Received on Monday, 6 March 1995 18:45:31 UTC