I am the author of a private chat system that is used by a medium sized group of people. It was originally developed about 10 years ago, using a basic frame bas

I am the author of a private chat system that is used by a medium sized group of people. It was originally developed about 10 years ago, using a basic frame based page and http-refresh, and over time it evolved into a full Ajax/JS web application with features that match Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. The key thing when developing an app is to fill a need. If there's no need for your app, why bother developing it? (unless it's a learning activity which of course is fine) The 'needs' in this particular case were: - Be web based; The target users couldn't install a local application. - Be proxy aware; Only use port 80 (and later 443) for connectivity. - Be 'under the radar'; Needed to live on a URL that didn't attract attention to itself. No other service at the time could fill these needs and this was before the explosion of Smartphones and the PhoneApp ecosystem. As such it became a useful tool, and is still used daily by a group of people. "See the Need - Fill the Need" - Robots (film)