On Sat, Nov 19, 2011 at 3:24 AM, Stefano D'Angelo <zanga.mail@gmail.com> wrote:
2011/11/19 David Robillard <d@drobilla.net>:
> 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:
>>
>> > http://kinlan-presentations.appspot.com/bleeding/index.html#42
>>
>> 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. ;)
>>
>> > 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.
>
> 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.

Hmm, I'd have to say though, as someone who does RIA apps for a living, (mostly in Python + Dojo and JQuery) it's still a freaking pain. Compared to using PyQT or PyWx, all of the javascript widget libraries still really hurt. Mind you, I'm sure that will change. Probably in less than a few years too!
 
What I'd like to see is something that fills the same role as the browser, but is a clean break from the sorry cludgey state of javascript. I'm sure the Android guys are on it though, so I'd agree it's likely the path of the future. Maybe we will at last see the arrival of the universal appliance platform that java was supposed to give us 20 years ago? ;-)

iain