Re: refreshig and regexp

["M.K.Kwong" <kwong@mcs.anl.gov>]

On 1/17/96, Kevin Wiggen wrote:

  >> I have a also have a question on ones ability to refresh the screen. 
  >>  
  >> I have an array on the client ...

At the moment, about the only things that js can dynamically change 
after a page has already been rendered (without having to replace the
current page, either in the same frame or in another frame, by an 
entirely new page) are "text" and "textarea" in a form.  Furthermore,
there is no way to specify, color, fontsize, or style (bold, italics,
etc.) for the text that appears in these area.  This is a serious 
limitation of js.

Someone quoted Brendan Eich as saying that in a future version, js will
be able to refresh table data (both text and images).  That will be
very very much welcome.  The ability to draw graphics interactively
will be even more desirable.

regexp
^^^^^^

On the topic of regexp.  I am an experienced perl user myself and agree
with all those who have expressed their opinion before me on the 
usefulness of this wonderful technique.  Jonathan Payne (formerly
working in the java team at Sun, now at Starwave) has written a
regexp utility library for JAVA (not for js, unfortunately).  At least,
it means that the power of regexp is being appreciated and there is hope
that one day js may have it too.  Check out

http://www.starwave.com/people/jpayne/java/regexp

MK Kwong
MCS, Argonne National Laboratory