Author Bulleted List
Advantages Of Using Java
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- This question asked Web authors what they thought the major
advantages of Java were. Respondents could choose more than one
answer.
- More than half of respondents cited Java's platform independence as a major advantage. About a third identified the fact that Java doesn't require special permissions to run (unlike CGI programs) as an advantage and 21.7% thought the level of interactivity it provided was an advantage.
- Europeans more than Americans saw the platform independence and interactivity as major advantages.
Background Of Authors
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- This question was new for this survey. Respondents could choose more than one answer.
- Almost half (47.5%) of respondents had some formal training in programming. A programming background was especially common among European respondents (59.8%). About a quarter had training in communication but very few have training in graphic design or fine arts.
Have You Programmed In Java
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- The percentage of authors who have programmed in Java increased from 17.3% in the Fifth survey to 24.4% in the Sixth.
- A higher percentage of Europeans have used Java, probably because of their stronger programming backgrounds.
Hours Spent Learning HTML
- As in the Fifth survey, most authors spent between 1 and 6 hours
learning HTML with almost half spending 1 to 3 hours. Only 3.1% have never learned HTML.
Knowledge Of Java Security
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- For this question, authors were asked to rate their knowledge of
Java's security measures as: "None at all", "A little (e.g. could list
some of them)", "Moderate (e.g. have read the white paper)", "A
lot (e.g. have a thorough understanding of flaws recently found)",
or "Expert (e.g. have written code to test them) ".
- The largest category said they didn't know anything about Java's security (45.7%). Of those who did know something about it, more than half (54.5%) said they knew "a little". These percentages are nearly identical to the Fifth survey which indicates that authors are not becoming more educated about Java's security even though more are planning to use it and more feel it is secure.
Languages Used For CGI Programming
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- As seen in previous surveys, almost half of web authors have never done CGI programming (47.3%). (NOTE: The graph in this survey only shows percentages for those who have done CGI programming.) The dominant language is PERL, followed distantly by AppleScript and C++.
- European respondents used notably more C than did US respondents.
Number Of Years Programming
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- The percentage of respondents with less than 7 years of programming experience has risen again slightly to 66.1%. The percentage with no programming experience has also risen slightly to 23.0%.
- As seen in previous surveys, Europeans are more likely to have extensive programming experience than US respondents.
Plans To Use Java
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- Percentages increased slightly both for those who plan to use Java and those who do not. As programmers and businesses become more familiar with Java, they have a better idea of whether it suits their needs or not. Consequently, respondents are slightly more sure this time as to whether or not they will be using Java in the next year.
Security Of Java
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- The largest category of users said that they didn't know how secure Java was (45.4%). Of those who gave it a rating, 8.3% thought it was very insecure, 28.0% said somewhat insecure, 54.5% said somewhat secure and 9.0% thought it was very secure. This represents a distinct shift toward more trust in Java's security measures from the Fifth survey.
Sources Consulted In Learning HTML
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- For the question, respondents could check more than one answer.
- All categories except online sources showed a slight increase from the Fifth survey. Online sources and books are still the most popular ways for people to learn HTML.
Topics Of Documents Authored
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- Respondents could choose more than one answer for this question.
- Personal home pages and work related pages were authored by more than 3/4 of the respondents.
- European respondents continue to report higher percentages of authorship in most categories.
Use Of Ready Made Java Applets
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- This was a new question for this survey. Since many repositories of Java applets are available, it is no longer necessary to be able to program to use Java. This question was designed to find out if these repositories are being used by web authors.
- Almost 2/3 of web authors say they have not used ready-made Java applets. European respondents are slightly more likely to have used them.
Value Of Java
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- Of those who had an opinion, more than half (57.5%) saw the value of Java as mainly functional. As with the fifth survey, almost 30% feel it is mainly aesthetic or adds no value to the web.
Why Do You Create Web Pages
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- This was a new question for this survey. Respondents could choose more than one answer.
- More than half of respondents (56.6%) create web pages in support of one of their hobbies. 48.7% said they created web pages just because it was fun. 68.9% of respondents said that they created web pages as a major or minor part of their job. European authors were less likely to create pages for a hobby or for fun and were more likely to create them as part of their job.
