JavaGrins - Choices as an applet

An applet is basically a program that is downloaded, compiled and executed on your computer, all at runtime. On reflection, a significant portion of time and effort is expended on the above tasks for an application. Hence one has to make choices while developing applets, so as to avoid frustration in any of the above steps. The criteria behind some of these choices we have made for JavaGrins are detailed below:

Minimize download time by reducing applet size.

This has resulted in our giving more priority to functionality(e.g. get SMILES for a depicted molecule/reaction) over features (e.g. arrow styles, fonts).
JavaGrins is ~125k in size and needs much lesser time to download than comparable Java editors which are ~400-500k.
While its startup time is ~15 seconds or less depending on your browser, this needs to be done only once during a browser session for Release 4.62a and above

Make it easy to integrate in other web pages without concern for parameters such as web language.

JavaGrins uses LiveConnect a browser-neutral method for communication among web elements. More information on techniques for integrating JavaGrins 4.61 in a web page can be obtained here

Make it so, nothing has to be set on the client, provided its a Java1.1 compliant and JavaScript enabled browser.

JavaGrins does not need Certificates or plugins for usage.

Every web page runs in its own JVM, requiring that applets be destroyed within 30 seconds of leaving a web page. This is not what an application user would necessarily want.

JavaGrins Release 4.62a (on demo now) stays up even after the user leaves the web page that invoked it. However, it can communicate only with web pages loaded in that browser window. This is still better than having the applet disappear and reload every time it's needed.