As is the case with many (but not all) objects in Netscape, you can call a constructor to create a new instance of an object. MSIE does not generally support this unless a constructor is really justified. Because this constructor is only supported in Netscape, you should avoid constructing new Applet objects. In any case, they are of limited use since you cannot easily place them into the page and make them visible, even if you could populate them with meaningful content. Because of this, the topic is marked as deprecated, although the functionality is likely to continue to be available.