>So why bother with a web based client? I only had to write a very small >HTML5 app to realize it is a nightmarish moving target of pain. Raise your >hand if you would willingly use >HTML/CSS/DOM/JS for anything if it wasn't the lowest common demoninator that >everything reads in an almost but >not quite incompatible way. But it looks like most of those odd platforms >just got dropped from consideration as hosts >for the new staff client, leaving only those that support the JRE. Basically, >newish Windows, OS X and Linux or the >same as Xulrunner and the current client.
Two points. First, the Java "shim" (aka hatch) will ideally not be required for staff client use, but only for certain special features (like printing) which are not well supported natively by the browser environment. Second, since we are already communicating via a network protocol, there have been discussions of allowing the Java shim to run on a different machine on your local network to allow for hybrid use (e.g. taking inventory on a tablet but then printing from that tablet to a machine at the circ desk). Dan Daniel Wells Library Programmer/Analyst Hekman Library, Calvin College 616.526.7133
