Comments on: The (not so well thought out) case against Web apps http://bradley-holt.com/2009/01/the-not-so-well-thought-out-case-against-web-apps/ Mon, 29 Sep 2014 19:50:55 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.6.1 By: Kyle http://bradley-holt.com/2009/01/the-not-so-well-thought-out-case-against-web-apps/comment-page-1/#comment-150 Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:58:00 +0000 http://bradley-holt.com/2009/01/the-not-so-well-thought-out-case-against-web-apps/#comment-150 @Matt
I think the people you’re talking about are UI designers, or UI professionals, but certainly not experts in their field. A true UI expert will create the best possible interface, and he won’t waste his time making unnecessary changes.

]]> By: bradley-holt http://bradley-holt.com/2009/01/the-not-so-well-thought-out-case-against-web-apps/comment-page-1/#comment-149 Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:13:00 +0000 http://bradley-holt.com/2009/01/the-not-so-well-thought-out-case-against-web-apps/#comment-149 @ Matt
Good point about “UI Experts” – the best know when to get out of their own way.

@ laZee
I think my first point still stands quite well on its own. So what that it’s not simple to scale Twitter – what’s Neil’s point? What’s the alternative? Shut it down? Re-architect it as peer-to-peer? I’m just not seeing how Neil can use this as an argument against web apps.

@ Francois Rautenbach
As I said in my post, “People need to stop trying to build web applications as if they were desktop applications.” It’s a different platform and different rules apply. Silverlight and Air try to make the web more like desktop applications and in the process “break” the web.

]]> By: Francois Rautenbach http://bradley-holt.com/2009/01/the-not-so-well-thought-out-case-against-web-apps/comment-page-1/#comment-148 Fri, 30 Jan 2009 10:41:00 +0000 http://bradley-holt.com/2009/01/the-not-so-well-thought-out-case-against-web-apps/#comment-148 The issue is very simple. Desktop applications have certain advantages and web applications have another set of advantages. Neil is a desktop guy so he naturally leans towards desktop apps and simply pointed out issues with web apps as seen from his perspective.

Neil made a mistake however to dismiss web applications. The solution is not the one or the other. Desktop apps are increasingly making use of web services while web apps in turn are trying to look and operate more like desktop apps. It is two worlds that are moving towards one another. (see http://www.alfega.com/images/stories/technology_progression.png)

We need to understand the benefits of both desktop and web apps and aim towards a solution that not only makes sense for the type of application, but also satisfy the needs of the industry that is targeted.

1a) Well developed desktop apps are easier to work with and are generally more productive than equivalent web apps.

1b) Web apps on the other hand does not need to be installed or upgraded, so bug fixes and improvements are immediately available.

2a) Desktop apps are easier to develop and debug and will generally execute faster than a web app, but code is more tightly coupled and releases are often further apart.

2b) Web apps are usually more granular in structure and can be developed by many individuals working on different parts of the same app at the same time.

I can go on and on, but I am sure you will get my drift.

Personally, I don’t believe that HTML and JavaScript are the best languages for application development and I don’t believe that the current line of browsers are good frameworks for applications, but this is the best solution available at this point in time. Products like Silverlight and Air are good compromises, but they are essentially compiled apps that are not that much different from Java in their basic design.

My vote goes for something like WAML and the X-Appl framework.

]]> By: laZee http://bradley-holt.com/2009/01/the-not-so-well-thought-out-case-against-web-apps/comment-page-1/#comment-147 Fri, 30 Jan 2009 10:19:00 +0000 http://bradley-holt.com/2009/01/the-not-so-well-thought-out-case-against-web-apps/#comment-147 Unfortunately, your first point fails badly. He didnt talk about switching Twitter to a desktop application – he just mentioned Twitter as an example for problems you might get when scaling up your servers. Like “look, its not always that simple”.

I guess many people stop reading after your first paragraph because of this.

]]> By: Matt http://bradley-holt.com/2009/01/the-not-so-well-thought-out-case-against-web-apps/comment-page-1/#comment-146 Fri, 30 Jan 2009 06:46:00 +0000 http://bradley-holt.com/2009/01/the-not-so-well-thought-out-case-against-web-apps/#comment-146 “We need more UI experts and we need to stop making programmers responsible for the UI.”

I’m not so sure about this. Plenty of apps that have “UI Experts” also have lousy UI. Don’t blame developers. I think a problem with having “UI Experts” is that they feel they have to do something special to justify their job; that is, instead of a simple standard UI, they need to come up with something flashy and cool.

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