I don't think we're disagreeing on these issues. I was just pointing
out that before you decide upon a particular implementation, it would
be beneficial to consider how it is being used. For example, say I
want to generate a graph of server utilization for the past 24 hrs --
for any arbitrarily complex figure being generated, it is not unreasonable
to assume that the file generation (and associated data compilation)
may be non-trivial, and separating the access time from the generation
time might be less irritating to the user (ie. by activating delayed image
loading if THEY so choose). In either case, I won't argue with
advocating an elegant solution, as long as it addresses the problem being
asked.
-Jason