>>>The old statements that web apps can't do what desktop apps can do is quickly going away.
>
>We wasted tens of thousands of $ trying to implement a web equivalent to multiple resizeable/moveable/openable/closable forms in the Windows desktop, whose content changes when the master record number changes. Basically the users configured things across 2 displays including other apps like lookup tools, to make it easier and quicker to assess info at a glance and do their jobs as they move from record to record. Easy enough in Windows, but on IE or Firefox, unless you deployed a huge browser instance spanning both screens - meaning child windows no longer are in windows desktop and the 3rd party apps now are covered- then communicating between the windows was a big issue that programmers said was deliberately and increasingly blocked by MS and Mozilla to thwart hack attempts. They found a way to do it in IE, but the consensus was that MS could close this at any moment via Windows Update, leaving customers (and us) with a useless irreparable product. So if somebody has a solution for that on the web, there's still budget!

How long ago was that? Maybe modern frameworks handle that sort of thing?

In general, can that sort of thing be handled within the web server? Either between separate web apps, or two browser instances looking at two different views of a single web app?