Pablo Pazos wrote: > Web developers can easily tackle those problems ...
I'm afraid the word "easily" is wrong, Pablo. I've been doing mostly web development for the last few years. I specifically mentioned those things because they are _hard_ to do in in web development, whereas in desktop applications they are extremely easy to do or, in the case of session time-outs, the problem doesn't exist at all. > Just use HTML: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Access_key This doesn't address keyboard shortcuts. Access keys are not keyboard shortcuts. I'm sure there must be some way to do keyboard shortcuts in a web application, because googling for "cloud9 keyboard shortcuts" comes up with some relevant-looking results, but I really have no idea how to achieve it. It also doesn't address at all my question about setting focus to the appropriate control automatically. When I open a page, I want keyboard focus set to a sensible place, probably the top-left entry control. If I select an item from a drop-down list, I probably want focus to remain on that drop-down list. If there's an OK or Save button on the page, then I should be able to click it without being forced to reach for the mouse. Simple usability stuff that is programmed routinely with almost no effort into a desktop app, and that is essential for me personally, if I am to spend hours on end, day after day, using that application. My experience of trying to get basic stuff like this working properly in a web app is that it's doable, but with a huge amount of effort. > One way to maintain a session open is to send heartbeats using > AJAX ... That's interesting. When I have a whole day free to investigate, I might work out a way to implement this for my current project. Hopefully that day won't turn into a week, as such things have a tendency of doing :-( Anyway, this pretty well proves my point. The problem simply doesn't exist in desktop apps, but in developing a web app you have to devote significant time to this problem instead of working on real functionality. These are just a few examples of the many things that I take for granted when programming desktop apps that suddenly become very difficult for web apps ... - Peter
