>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!

I'm going to guess that "window.open()" didn't work well for you. That said, I believe your programmers need to take a look at the latest features coming from W3 (special look at what chrome is doing these days). Beyond the browser side all that you suggested - that is the communication to any device or updating screens is available using node.js, also all the new webAssembly stuff also allows access to devices and updating data. Node runs on the server side and the client side which allows data updates. For example I have several tabs (customer address, cust open ar, cust open so, cust inventory all on one browser - but a second browser dealing with emails is opened with the same customer. All tabs are updated after a customer is selected. Very similar to what I use to do with Fox - I even include a auto-complete. There are things that are not up to desktop standards today - but that is mostly in validation, issues of speed if there is a bad connection and the programmer often has to jump through hoops to get javascript to work properly. Also there is a penalty for creating large browser interfaces (1st load time) but some it can be mitigated with some lazy load tricks, hidden DOM's etc.. The biggest issue was working with two screens. On linux I could be sure the email browser would open on the second screen - not so on windows or mac's. But in the end all that happened was the user moved the email browser to the second screen. Resizing works. If I missed your point - could you explain the issue in more details. BTW all my server side stuff runs under Linux.