I've seen many and worked on one in the late 90's that could out do any HTML5 app I've seen or written. We did it with cohesive API's of the caliber of Windows

I've seen many and worked on one in the late 90's that could out do any HTML5 app I've seen or written. We did it with cohesive API's of the caliber of Windows API but multi-platform and web transparent. Those who wrote off applets will not be looked upon favorably by history. I wrote a powerful database GUI as an applet, to pick up an update all the user had to do was save their work and hit the refresh button. I used Symantec Visual Cafe.