The future of hydraulic and hydrologic engineering computations online
Fact	Opinion	Date	Comments
Early online programs	-	2001	PERL-CGI-FORTRAN with HTML
Current online programs	-	2004	PHP-MySQL with HTML-CSS
-	Programs should be developed by computer scientists	-	Not optimal
-	Programs should be developed by hydraulic engineers	-	They would need to learn the tools, which are not taught in the regular civil engineering curriculum
-	Programs should be developed by hydraulic engineers, with assistance, as needed, by computer scientists	-	Optimal
People are using code generators	-	2001	Not optimal
The Visualab is using templates	-	2004	Optimal
-	The online script will eventually replace Excel as the medium of choice for engineering computations	2012	More effective
-	Only a selected few will develop online scripts	2012	Practical
Online scripts can be run with no charge and/or sold for profit	-	2012	Optimal
Software such as Excel is sold for profit	-	1993	Practical
Software such as MySQL is distributed free of charge	-	1995	Practical
Software translation is easy	-	-	Practical
HTML code is shared with users/clients	-	1995	Shareability
CSS code may or may not be shared with users/clients	-	1995	Depends on coding
Server-side code such as PHP and MySQL are secure; not shared with users	-	2004	Can be updated without having to reinstall
-	Ajax (Asynchronous Javascript with XML) will be increasingly used	2005	More effective (used by Google)
"Let the user beware" doctrine	-	2004	Places burden of proof on users in case of errors or omissions
-	Modeling will be done online	2010	More effective
-	Online videos will be increasingly used for instruction	2010	People like raster format