The New Church of Clientology -or- Clients and their weight

OK, so the Theory list's a little quiet. Here's something to theorise (and
hopefully draw on some practical experience) about, and apologies in advance
for the number of jargon terms - sometimes you've just got to give in:

The dilemma regarding fat or thin clients (not the one's who pay our
consulting fees) continues.

The expanding base of XML usage, as well as the almost ubiquitous use of
client-side script, plugins, ActiveX controls and Java applets, has turned
the "browser" into more of a "carnivorous pillager". Welcome smaller,
faster, cheaper hardware ushered in by Mr Moore and his law.

Broadband nirvana is a long way off for the majority of Internet users, and
on an increasingly congested infrastructure, the fewer client-server
transactions that have to occur, the better.

On the other hand, there are imposing needs for more server-based control:
centralised and hyperlinked information repositories; the demand by users
that Web pages harness the capabilities of all elements of it's multimedia;
multicasting, real-time information pages, and other "write-once, read-many"
weblications; and the distinct lack of programability provided by the
vendors of the most popular plugins and controls (eg. the Flash or Real
players) versus the power and flexibility provided by the same vendors in
their server interfaces (eg. Flash Generator or G2 server).

Some proposed topics of discussion might be (and any 3GL C/S architects
would already have had them many times before):

* When is a thin client good?
* When is a thin client not good?
* How much do the changes in technology (programs, operating platforms,
network infrastructure) alter our answers to the above?
* How much do the shifts in user requirements alter our answers to the
above?
* How much have the underlying design decisions changed over the past 5
years?
* How recently has your opinion changed on thin/fat clientology? Do you
expect it to change again?
* Does the balance shift in an intranet or extranet situation, and how?

I expect there'll be a lot of subjectivity on the topic so it'd be good to
explain why certain decisions were made - often it might just be "because
the customer wanted it like that" or "it just felt right" :-)

"L." Josh Graham
JoshuaGraham(at)GrahamIS.com

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