19 Nov
2011
19 Nov
'11
6:52 a.m.
On Fri, 2011-11-18 at 12:01 +0100, Adrian Knoth wrote:
On Thu, Nov 17, 2011 at 11:48:28AM -0800, Niels Mayer
wrote:
Another step towards "What is an OS? I do everything in the browser."
I don't really like it, though I see large-scale advantages when people
don't have to install office anymore. ;)
I have every intention of moving as much GUI into the browser as
possible, FWIW. Whatever isn't good enough now will be soon enough.
Writing to native toolkits has always been the worst part of programming
an app, by far the biggest hindrance to true portability, and encourages
lack of UI/engine separation. I will not miss it one little bit.
There are things I don't like about it, and I'm sure a large number of
fellow retro curmudgeons around here feel likewise... but sometimes you
have to take a look around and acknowledge reality. How many people
reading this keep a device with a full blown web browser in their
pocket? When is the last time you used a computer that couldn't display
a web page? QED.
Writing one UI that works on all reasonable devices for free with zero
software installation? Free "remote control" with any PC or tablet or
phone with wifi? Yes please. Whatever cons there are, they don't even
come close to trumping that very tangible user-visible win.
-dr
P.S. I specifically mean UI. There may come a day when writing actual
audio code in whatever the browser runs is not completely insane, but
that day is not today.
Simple low-latency, glitch-free, audio playback
and scheduling
Real-time processing and analysis
Low-level audio manipulation
Effects: spatial panning, low/high pass filters, convolution, gain, ...
GUI-wise, using HTML5 sounds sane to me. Definitely for static UI
elements, no idea about meters.
Thanks to browsers, the Javascript compilers are damn good these days.
If they add decent ways to do DSP with it, I don't see a reason why the
whole concept shouldn't fly.