Is it the Right Way, or the Easier Way?
The traditional emulation software vendors went the emulator-in-a-box route as a means to leverage their existing software assets. IBM, Attachmate/Microfocus and Rocket to name a few all seem to be promoting their Java or ActiveX emulators over more Web friendly HTML approaches. Reason? It was easier for them both technically and emotionally (yes, organizations have emotions too!) to take existing terminal emulation code and expertise and port it over to run across the Internet. The result is really the "same old thing" running over an Internet connection.
Easier for Vendors but Harder for You
ActiveX only runs in Internet Explorer on Windows PCs. That used to be a good percentage of users, but Not Today!. Java has as many problems on PCs and doesn't run as an applet on any mobile device or tablet.
So, how is an emulator-in-a-box going to help a business survive in the 'net age? Is it going to improve supply-chain management or improve customer service? Will inexperienced salespeople be able to key their own orders? Is anything different than it has been for the last 15 years given a cheap modem, a PC and a mainframe protocol converter? The answer is no. It was easier to load those difficult, training-intensive applications when they are loaded by a click inside a standard browser. Just a little easier.
So what exactly were the applet vendors selling? Lower administration and network costs, for one thing (HTML-based solutions have the same benefits, with even lower administration costs). But that is just about it. While a Java development tool promises the ability to create new graphical user interfaces layered over existing screens, this is mostly demo-ware leading to difficult and expensive development efforts. Layering a coding-intensive GUI over Screens using EHLLAPI-like interfaces is also something that's not very Web-like. It's basically client-server all over again, just delivered on the Internet instead of a local area network.
The good news for Inventu and is that a lot of customers will come looking for tools to do what the applet vendors are promoting, and we will be there with Inventu Viewer. We'll get in at the start of a project or anytime after; when the emulator-in-a-box proves to have little business benefit on the Web.
Now that Java applets don't even exist anymore except in "IE11 Mode" on Microsoft Edge, Inventu Viewer+ is the best option for web terminal emulation that is just a click away.