

Building Responsive Web Applications - webpro
http://mobile.smashingmagazine.com/2013/06/12/building-a-responsive-web-application/

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webpro
This post was published 2 days ago at Smashing Magazine. I'm the author and
I'm wondering what you think about the approach presented, and how you have
built, or would build responsive web applications.

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juretriglav
I'm pretty sure you've seen this already:
[http://adioso.com/blog/2013/06/responsifying-
adioso/](http://adioso.com/blog/2013/06/responsifying-adioso/)

I'm reviewing both currently to see what the differences in your approaches
are.

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webpro
I think the Adioso case is closer to an enhanced, responsive website, where my
article focuses more on web applications. Just for fun, also see
[https://github.com/webpro/Websites-vs-Web-
Applications](https://github.com/webpro/Websites-vs-Web-Applications) for the
difference ;-)

~~~
juretriglav
After looking at both, I agree and apologize for connecting the two. Despite
the similarities in titles, they are different beasts. In summary, your post
deals with loading of modules based on device capabilities, while the post
about Adios deals mostly with responsive visual adjustments.

I have to say that while your approach to responsive web applications makes
sense, it is geared toward bigger web applications. The users of the
application I'm currently building need to see everything on all platforms
they use, the information just needs to be displayed in a different manner.
The app is also small enough that loading something only to then hide it with
a media query is not really an issue. It's obvious that building bigger apps
you need to take conditional loading into account, but I'm not sure where the
tipping point (in terms of app size) for that is. It's also true that the
tipping point is moving as mobile internet speed and general performance
increases.

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webpro
Not sure whether the tipping point as mentioned should even be used as an
argument. That would be the same as assuming specific pixel ranges, not having
touch input, or fast internet connection for "large" devices (as I point out
in the article).

I think what matters is that it is possible to be responsive/adaptive based on
such contextual factors. Responsive web design is basically enabling that for
screen size, but there are many more factors in play.

A tipping point based on the feature-richness/robustness of a programmatic
solution to go responsive is another story (i.e. it shouldn't prevent from
going in that direction).

