Michele Simionato wrote:

>(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,
>
>

I have never seen these browsers do an automatic update, so I think
they're incompatible with these features.  You could write a partial
page with an explanation at the top, then wait till the end to finish
the page, with a "check back now" link in case it times out.