Thinking outside the (browser) box July 4th, 2007 at 3:13 am by Dylan Schiemann
Apple’s iPhone web application development tips are yet the latest example of blurring the lines between the power of the web and the desktop. The example that drives this point home the most is Google Maps:
Google maps links open a built-in Google client rather than making a connection through the public website.
On the desktop, we’re seeing Dojo Offline and Google Gears, as well as more proprietary offerings such as Adobe’s AIR and Microsoft’s Silverlight. One interesting thing coming from Apple that has not received much mention is WebKit and Cocoa bindings, including JavaScript bindings. Soon we’ll be able to use open web standards to create native Mac apps!
The proliferation of JavaScript, HTML, and CSS is rapidly spreading to every area of software development, because open web standards are powerful and relatively easy to comprehend.
Posted July 5th, 2007 at 4:38 am
[…] After writing a recent post about thinking outside the (browser) box, I started thinking about the rapid rate by which things are changing. A year ago, most web developers had to think about Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera, and perhaps WAP for mobile devices and widget development for one of more platforms. […]
Posted July 20th, 2007 at 11:06 am
I see the iPhone opening a real Google Maps application as a necessity rather than a deliberate blurring of the lines between web and desktop. Because the Google Maps website would be crippled on the iPhone, since Safari doesn’t support drag and drop (no onmousemove).