-> (this is more of a browser-related question than of a quixote-related
-> question, but let me try my chance ...)
->
-> Suppose I start a long-running computation from a web page.
-> The browser must periodically check to see if the computation has
-> terminated. My current solution is to use a
->  tag that reloads the
-> page every 2 seconds, or any other fixed number of seconds. However,
-> this does not work with certain browsers (for instance both elinks
-> and lynx have issues do not refresh the page). The same problem
-> happens with "redirect". How am I supposed to redesign my application
-> to make it working on any browser? Do you have any hints?
-> This looks like a common situation. TIA,

You could set up an HTTP redirect (e.g. 302) that redirected to a page
that took 2 seconds to respond, and then responded with another redirect
(to itself) if the computation hadn't finished.  It wouldn't give you a
status message, but it should work!

It's not a very Web-by situation, though.  You can't ask the user to
return to the Web page when the computation is done & just notify
them by e-mail?

--titus