Platinum Edition Using XHTML™, XML, and Java™ 2

Creating Animated GIFs

One of the biggest crazes to hit the Web is doing animations with animated GIFs instead of relying on a dynamic document technique such as server push or client pull. The irony is that animated GIFs have been around since 1989—at least in theory. The GIF89a standard has always supported multiple images stored in the same GIF file, but it wasn't until four or five years ago that people caught on that you can do Web animations this way.

It is surprising that this development didn't happen sooner, given that GIF animations are so much easier to implement than server-push animations. A server-push animation requires a server that is CGI-capable, a program to pipe the individual frames of the animation down an open HTTP connection, ...