Interesting if this is in fact the goal. I would argue you still will have a mix of both. No ubiquitous environment, but Web apps will get first class support on upcoming platforms. At least this seems to be the most logical route. If you've ever used Cordova or "PhoneGap" you would know about the plug in architecture and how it is in fact still the wild west. Developers write native extensions to do things the underlying JS API can't, this won't change for a long time until the Web API does. The future is a mix of both Web and native, not just the Web.
The Promise of Firefox OS
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Re: The Promise of Firefox OS
#12I'm starting to feel like html/js/css is starting to become the 'this will be the year of linux on the desktop' of apps.
They're flexible technologies, but don't think they'll ever have the feel of purpose built native API's.
Re: The Promise of Firefox OS
#13I've read the article, I agree with the HTML5/JS premise, but I still do not understand Firefox OS.
Re: The Promise of Firefox OS
#14I'm starting to feel like html/js/css is starting to become the 'this will be the year of linux on the desktop' of apps. They're flexible technologies, but don't think they'll ever have the feel of purpose built native API's.
Unless the native apps are meant to be built with web technologies. It's not like using these technologies no a mobile OS is a new concept. And be wary of using something like iOS has a base for your assumptions. It's not built with those technologies in mind, and people already use HTML/JS/CSS for their apps (successfully, I might add).
Re: The Promise of Firefox OS
#15And if your problem is with JavaScript as a language, you can already use a myriad of languages that reliably compile to it. Do you come from a Java background? You’ll probably like Dart, from Google. More of a functional kind of developer? Try ClojureScript, which is an impressive, well-maintained and well-performing implementation of Clojure on top of JavaScript. Coming from Ruby? You’ll be almost at home with CoffeeScript. You get the picture.
God no. Instead of having to use a single awful language all the time I get to choose what language to transpile to javascript and I never have to look at or think about javascript at all. Unless of course there are bugs and then you get to experience the pleasure of debugging machine generated javascript. Maybe some people are filled with joy by the thought of debugging generated js, all I can say is that those people are certifiably insane.
How about we work on platforms that support more that one language as first class citizens. Is that really such a crazy idea in 2013?
Re: The Promise of Firefox OS
#16Glad to see this coming out - I think the technical chutzpah of FirefoxOS is fantastic, now let's see Mozilla Market it in the same clear vision and spirit. I mean I simply did not know there was an emulator ( https://hacks.mozilla.org/2012/12/firefox-os-simulator-1-0-i... ) until this post, and honestly I looked. Edit: oh and can someone tell me if persona is taking off or not - are there stats from login.persona.or…
Hi lifeisstillgood, I am one of the core Persona developers. Persona is a pretty awesome project with very ambitious goals. We obviously want to see growth explode and are working hard to make Persona great for both users and site operators.
Persona's growth has been steady, primarily driven by newly developed sites. We hope that as the user base grows and support for the BrowserID protocol is natively built into the browsers, existing sites will have more of an impetus to offer support.
A version of Persona is already integrated into FirefoxOS and we hope to offer support in desktop Firefox by the end of the year.
If you want to participate in discussions, have an idea on how we can improve, or just want to see what we are up to, our mailing list is open to everyone: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/mozilla.dev.identity
Re: The Promise of Firefox OS
#17And if your problem is with JavaScript as a language, you can already use a myriad of languages that reliably compile to it. Do you come from a Java background? You’ll probably like Dart, from Google. More of a functional kind of developer? Try ClojureScript, which is an impressive, well-maintained and well-performing implementation of Clojure on top of JavaScript. Coming from Ruby? You’ll be almost at home with Coff…
That particular problem will improve immensely with SourceMap, so you'll almost never have to look at JS.
Re: The Promise of Firefox OS
#18And if your problem is with JavaScript as a language, you can already use a myriad of languages that reliably compile to it. Do you come from a Java background? You’ll probably like Dart, from Google. More of a functional kind of developer? Try ClojureScript, which is an impressive, well-maintained and well-performing implementation of Clojure on top of JavaScript. Coming from Ruby? You’ll be almost at home with Coff…
How about we work on platforms that support more that one language as first class citizens. Is that really such a crazy idea in 2013?
You mean like iOS' half-C or Android's half-Java?
Re: The Promise of Firefox OS
#19Good article. The main reason for FFOS is not to take over the world but rather disrupt the closed ecosystems that Google, Apple and Microsoft are creating; the same way that Firefox broke Microsofts monopoly on the browser market.
Except Android is no more or less closed than Firefox OS. Both open source, allow sideloading and have curated app stores.
Re: The Promise of Firefox OS
#20And if your problem is with JavaScript as a language, you can already use a myriad of languages that reliably compile to it. Do you come from a Java background? You’ll probably like Dart, from Google. More of a functional kind of developer? Try ClojureScript, which is an impressive, well-maintained and well-performing implementation of Clojure on top of JavaScript. Coming from Ruby? You’ll be almost at home with Coff…
Ok so is the solution a standard bytecode for browsers ? Or is is NaCl ? Or PNaCl ? Or something like Hypercard ? Or do we tear down the monoliths that browsers are in small Unix-style components ?