[development] SoC: Multi-site administration through rich XUL client

[Chris Johnson]

Boris Mann wrote:

> This is interesting. The XUL client as Drupal installer? Kind of like 
> some of the MySQL remote config/admin tools? It's an interesting 
> direction, certainly.

I only know a little about XUL.  What are the chief advantages it provides 
over using Javascript and XMLHttpRequest (i.e. AJAX)?  A more rich set of 
widgets?  Better event handling?

I get the impression XUL is much lighter than Java, but it does not appear to 
have stateful connections.  Or does it?

I start having wild fantasies about building thin, lightweight 
PowerBuilder/VisualBasic-like fancy clients running in Gecko browsers with 
stateful connections to web servers and see the world as my oyster.  :-)

So for the XUL n00bs among us (that would be me), what's it buying us here?

Thanks,
..chris