
The Wonderful Awful Browser - sanj
http://database-programmer.blogspot.com/2008/07/wonderful-awful-browser.html
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run4yourlives
This isn't a bad article, even if it is rather obvious. One thing I would like
to see though is an understanding that the application programmer understands
that he is in a different environment, and therefore is the one that needs to
adapt.

In many parts I got the feeling that the thesis was: It was like this on the
desktop, so the web should change to be more like the desktop because that way
I don't have to change.

That's the kind of thinking that gives us craptastic IE only business apps,
and has actually stalled IE improvements over the last couple of years.

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jimbokun
"It was like this on the desktop, so the web should change to be more like the
desktop because that way I don't have to change."

Or "It was like this on the desktop, so my users demand that it be just that
way on the web version, too, so they don't have to change."

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run4yourlives
That's a valid point. But it begs the question: Why are you not writing a
desktop app then?

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fauigerzigerk
because managing a stateful client is nasty and costly if users cannot or are
not allowed to do it themselves.

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run4yourlives
You can't have your cake and eat it too. Software development is all about
compromise.

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kendowns
You can have your cake and eat it too, and you don't have to compromise. All
you have to do is recognize where the browser's original intent may be
different from your own (doc mgmnt versus transactional database mgmt). Making
the browser do the job is very doable, but it is much easier if you recognize
why it seems hard.

~~~
run4yourlives
That's a very different view that what's being argued in this thread, and I
agree with it.

Of course, as I already alluded to, I understood you post to push this point,
but felt that you sometimes got a little too close to making the suggestion
that there was something inherently wrong with the way the web is set up.

Thanks for clarifying.

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kleevr
This guy should look into XUL Runner:

<http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/The_Joy_of_XUL>

~~~
kendowns
Actually I have, it is extremely cool. For my own case I don't know where it
will fit in yet, as I currently do fine without it, but its one of those
things I follow.

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swivelmaster
Ironic that the very attributes that allowed the web to be popular (HTML, easy
navigation) have turned it into a nightmare for developing actual
applications.

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Hexstream
Well, the web was originally designed for documents, not applications. So I'm
not sure where the irony lies.

