I want to design a web page that will display a visual aid representing real time data. Real time for me means updating at least every few seconds, or literally realtime/event based if that is possible. The data displayed will be displayed in a rather visual/graphical way rather than simple text or a table.
I do not have a lot of knowledge of web development other than a little knowledge of HTML, so I do not know what options are available to create a web page that does what I want. My search has seemed to point towards Flash as being the technology best suited to do this, but I have also seen several articles which caution against flash (but mention no alternative).
The main alternative contender instead of Flash seems to be Comet style programming which I understand would likely utilize (in my case at least) a system called "long polling" to update data regularly. This could work, however the nature of the way I would like the information displayed leads me to believe that flash might be better than this as it sounds like longpolling is well suited for simple display of text inofrmation based on results, whereas I will need certain details of the visual display to change as well depending on results.
My research has also lead me to believe that an ASP.NET or PHP page would almost do what I want, but my understanding is that these two frameworks'/languages' purpose is more along the lines of generation of a unique web page when loading rather than updating it as someone is looking at it.
To make sure it is clear: communiciation is COMPLETELY one way in my imaginary web page. the user's display needs to update but they in no way send data back.
What tools are best suited to create a webpage which will update/display (in a visual manner) data in real time in as someone is viewing it?
edit:
after finding this article: How does facebook, gmail send the real time notification?, I am thinking Comet could still be a really good option as I can just use it really as the messenger of events rather than having the direct result displayed as text or something. Still looking for advice on which way may be easier though due to my impression that Flash may be easier to program the graphics in a dynamic way.
