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Sergey Brin: Native Apps And Web Apps Will Converge Soon

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Re: Sergey Brin: Native Apps And Web Apps Will Converge Soon

#12
post #11

Please don't joke, in some way they will converge, but my quad core is not a dumb terminal executing javascript.

This discussion is more about how the code that runs on your machine gets to be there, and when it runs, and less about where it runs (client vs server).

The way things are, this requires way too much admin on the part of people who would rather not have to think about it.

Re: Sergey Brin: Native Apps And Web Apps Will Converge Soon

#13
post #9

I dont think they will converge that fast. I definitely don't see myself writing html and javascript code for a computer program. The web languages unfortunately are ad-hoc pieces of different technologies shuffled together. Ad-hoc is generally good, but its done in a disorganized way which is what I don't like about it. Why bring the same chaos to native?

"I definitely don't see myself writing html and javascript code for a computer program."

XAML and C# are rather close in comparison. The capabilities of HTML and JS are only limited by what the browser allows.

I understand your point, but I don't think the HTML/JS/Server Side language setup is far off the mark.

Re: Sergey Brin: Native Apps And Web Apps Will Converge Soon

#14
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Care to elaborate a bit?

I think he might be referring to the "write once, run anywhere" slogan, about how Java via the JVM would free users and developers from the tyranny of any particular OS.

The OS might be a tyranny, but it's also a tremendous resource. Just because one is in a totalitarian regime, it doesn't mean that one can't do business.

Smalltalk eschewed the OS for true write once, run anywhere freedom. One result was that the community missed out on the synergies of both the Windows and FOSS ecosystems. (This is one thing Perl, Python, and Ruby do right.)

In the case of Google: they too have established their own ecosystem. They can extend their ecosystem and increase synergies with Web Apps in general. The OS won't go away, but it has ceased to be the central focus of computer use. Apps (web or otherwise) and the networks they provide access to are the central focus of most users today.

Re: Sergey Brin: Native Apps And Web Apps Will Converge Soon

#15
What I want to see is a platform where native software is accessed in terms of resources, aliased locally and cached. Why should software need to be downloaded and installed? Something like apt or ports but on-the-fly and more fine-grained, for things like controls and graphics.

Re: Sergey Brin: Native Apps And Web Apps Will Converge Soon

#16

What I want to see is a platform where native software is accessed in terms of resources, aliased locally and cached. Why should software need to be downloaded and installed? Something like apt or ports but on-the-fly and more fine-grained, for things like controls and graphics.

why can't my PC/netbook/phone mount a remote drive on which software is all installed? I never have to worry about upgrades, installing anything, plus it runs locally meaning i have full OS hooks for peripheral devices etc.

Re: Sergey Brin: Native Apps And Web Apps Will Converge Soon

#17

What I want to see is a platform where native software is accessed in terms of resources, aliased locally and cached. Why should software need to be downloaded and installed? Something like apt or ports but on-the-fly and more fine-grained, for things like controls and graphics.

The only thing that I've seen that tried to split executing application code between the display server (i.e. the bit you have locally) and the application process was NeWS:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeWS

I had great fun programming with this (especially with the Hypercard-like HyperNeWS environment).

Once you the hang of interactive programming in PostScript it was a lot of fun.

Of course, you could argue that web browsers are doing this with Javascript - but that's at a different level of abstraction.

Re: Sergey Brin: Native Apps And Web Apps Will Converge Soon

#19
post #9

I dont think they will converge that fast. I definitely don't see myself writing html and javascript code for a computer program. The web languages unfortunately are ad-hoc pieces of different technologies shuffled together. Ad-hoc is generally good, but its done in a disorganized way which is what I don't like about it. Why bring the same chaos to native?

html and javascript are like assembly language. when/if this convergence happens you'll be using something like GWT or NaCl.

Re: Sergey Brin: Native Apps And Web Apps Will Converge Soon

#20

What I want to see is a platform where native software is accessed in terms of resources, aliased locally and cached. Why should software need to be downloaded and installed? Something like apt or ports but on-the-fly and more fine-grained, for things like controls and graphics.

The only thing that I've seen that tried to split executing application code between the display server (i.e. the bit you have locally) and the application process was NeWS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeWS I had great fun programming with this (especially with the Hypercard-like HyperNeWS environment). Once you the hang of interactive programming in PostScript it was a lot of fun. Of course, you could argue that we…

isn't this what X does?
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