Now that browsers are dropping support for the Java plug-in, it seems that the days of applets are coming to an end. Although Java applets never dominated the mainstream web experience as much as more popular Flash-based content, they did find a niche in scientific and engineering applications - which is one of the few areas where they will likely be missed.

Here on the RF Mentor site, we have already re-worked our reflectometer applet as a JavaScript web page and are currently working on getting our popular Smith Chart applet converted as well. The picture shows some of the progress in getting a Smith Chart to draw on a web page as well as respond to mouse events using just JavaScript. We'll keep you posted on progress we make towards getting most of the Smith Chart matching applet's functionality working without requiring a Java plug-in. Let us know in the comments if there are any favorite features of the applet that you would like to see in the JavaScript version (transmission line elements, multiple frequencies, etc.) and we'll try to make sure they get included.