Help for standalone java client

[Nicola Gawaine]

Hi all,
I'm a java developer and I'm new to this mailinglist and to mapserver.
I've to develop a java standalone application that has to communicate
with mapserver. Although I've read some documents, the only idea that
I have about the communication between application and mapserver is:
to create an application that sends an http request to mapserver,
fetches the returning page, and parses the page's elements to display
the map image etc.
Does exists another system ?

I hope my english is comprehensible :)
-- 
Nicola 'GaWaiNe' Racco --- delloblio at gmail.com