Web Writable Files API: Simplifying Local File Access

Post by saagarjha » Tue, Nov 13, 2018, 5:05 AM UTC

rhlsthrm wrote: post #88

rkagerer wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I the only crusty old fart who thinks this a lousy trend? I worry the next talented generation of developers is being alienated from the desktop, and as a result my computing experience will degrade as Chrome's piecemeal attempts to reinvent the OS leave me with an inferior selection of browser-based toys that are awkward and clunky compared to their native counterparts. I grant the browser fixes a couple things m…

But why is it always necessarily "awkward and clunky"? As always on network connection becomes more and more ubiquitous, internet connected experiences become better and better. Just look at (well-designed) experiences today like streaming video. I'm excited about things like WASM that will allow browser-based experiences to close the gap more and more with native apps. The web infrastructure is extremely powerful an…

Post by wild_preference » Tue, Nov 13, 2018, 6:03 AM UTC

Post by pjmlp » Tue, Nov 13, 2018, 6:23 AM UTC

rkagerer wrote: post #70

nine_k wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As you surely noticed, for last 10 years the browser is actively trying to replace your desktop OS, so that the browser would become the platform, instead of Windows / macOS / Linux / anything else. Imagine the desktop becoming ChromeOS on any computer, not just Chromebooks. For this, the browser must make all the traditional OS interfaces available. It has interfaces for accelerated 2D and 3D graphics, audio, USB, p…

Am I the only crusty old fart who thinks this a lousy trend? I worry the next talented generation of developers is being alienated from the desktop, and as a result my computing experience will degrade as Chrome's piecemeal attempts to reinvent the OS leave me with an inferior selection of browser-based toys that are awkward and clunky compared to their native counterparts. I grant the browser fixes a couple things m…

Post by gdfasfklshg4 » Tue, Nov 13, 2018, 9:16 AM UTC

politician wrote: post #50

fouc wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And more than that, I honestly wonder about the motives of an advertising driven company these days. It feels like 5 years later this will come to bite us in the ass as another way of exploiting access to our computer and data. What if websites start requiring specific files to exist before allowing access?

> What if websites start requiring specific files to exist before allowing access? This is certainly going to be immediately abused for encrypted storage of persistent cookies and tracking identifiers. - If my site generates cat pics, I'll put identifiers in the metadata fields of the image format. - If my site generates markdown, I'll put identifiers in an alternate data stream (Windows) or encoded in the whitespace…

Post by joesb » Tue, Nov 13, 2018, 9:48 AM UTC

fouc wrote: post #31

joshfraser wrote: post #19

One of the great things about browsers is the way you can trust them to be reasonably sandboxed from the rest of your machine. Features like this chip away at that trust model and open up new attack vectors against unsuspecting users. I get the usability benefits, but the security implications are scary. How easy would it be to trick my mother into uploading her profile picture and have the site change that file into…

And more than that, I honestly wonder about the motives of an advertising driven company these days. It feels like 5 years later this will come to bite us in the ass as another way of exploiting access to our computer and data. What if websites start requiring specific files to exist before allowing access?