The thread about server-side frameworks leads me to wonder; will the current spate of evolution of web development ultimately bring us back to desktop development, albeit with some changes?
Clay observed that the focus is switching from server-side frameworks to client-side frameworks. Google Gears (which I realise is going to be replaced by Web Storage) gave applications the ability to store data locally. JavaScript has been beefed up in terms of performance to presumably be competitive with conventional desktop languages. I'll imagine a couple of steps that could follow this: 1. Browsers start to allow other languages than JavaScript to run code in web pages, in response to (my imagined) demand from businesses to allow such code to be distributed as binary. 2. Browsers add yet more features that are traditionally the domain of desktop apps, e.g., drag and drop between web pages or from native file managers to web pages, clipboard access, CD/DVD/Blu-Ray burning, printing, access to areas of the hard drive, managing their own window positions and sizes. 3. The browser disappears into the OS (see Google Chrome OS), such that there is no visible difference between running a desktop app and a web app; the only real difference is that the desktop app can write to anywhere the user can and requires installation but the web app can only write to its own storage area or anywhere the user explicitly gives it access to. 4. OSs allow desktop apps to sandbox themselves like web apps are, and allow silent installation (java-web-start style) and update of desktop apps that declare themselves 'sandboxable'. 5. Nobody gives a monkey's whether your app is a desktop or a web app anymore, the difference is the toolkits you use to create the app rather than what it can do. What do you think? -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
