[int_19h]

It's both, really. HTML makes it really easy to do "corporate branded" fancy buttons, but you still have to jump through hoops to do something that could be done with a database and the stock data grid widget in <10 lines of code in VB or Delphi.

[DrScientist]

Are we really comparing 2 tier to three tier here? ( With the web effectively 3 tier by default ).

That old VB code that queried the database directly wouldn't work well over a non-local network.

ie there is a bit of apples and oranges comparison here.

[yCombLinks]

How it talks to the backend is irrelevant here. That has zero to do with the fact that the DOM was imply not designed for dynamic application layouts.

[DrScientist]

Sure DOM is retained mode graphics - however as I said, if you want to immediate mode - then canvas is available.

[int_19h]

You do have a point, but then again, think about how many corpnet apps are web apps these days, even though the network is local.

[DrScientist]

Sure.

You also might not need any access control, network traffic security, cross platform deployment, instant install, evergreen updating, trivial UI integration ( links ) etc etc.

If you really want something simple you could use Excel, Access or Filemaker as a front end.

I agree life has got more complex - and in some cases unnecessarily so - case in point it's becoming increasingly hard to write web apps without SSL - even if you don't need it.