The Web just sucks

Duncan Edwards Jones

Desktop development...I'd say that is much better.

'--8<------------------------ Ex Datis: Duncan Jones Merrion Computing Ltd

Gary Wheeler

Hmmm. Haven't had our coffee this morning, have we? :-D

Software Zen: delete this;

Paul Watson

I'm not really sure desktop development is better for an app that say replicates the Code Projects' functionality. Serving millions of users with full linking, search, advertising, email notification, editorial control etc. You'd need some kind of P2P engine or a lot of web-services on a central server and the desktop app would need complicated synching and conflict resolution technology. Much of that comes free with a web app. Desktop technology is good for a Word clone or an email client. I imagine the cost of developing a Flickr or del.icio.us clone with desktop technology would be far higher and a good deal harder than with web technology. The web has been built to support those types of apps and it works well for it. It has its problems but it is built that way while desktop technology isn't. The tools and technologies are different. They grew up differently. Sure, web dev has plenty of problems but it is a lot more than just some Ajax hacked onto a HTML and DOM base. Desktop dev is good for desktop apps. Web dev is good for web apps. Both are starting to impinge on the other and we need some new tools for that grey area but desktop dev isn't that.

regards, Paul Watson Ireland FeedHenry needs you

Shog9 wrote:

eh, stop bugging me about it, give it a couple of days, see what happens.

Dario Solera

Ashley van Gerven wrote:

were you doing web development 6-odd years ago

No. :cool: Actually, I was not doing development at all.

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Dario Solera

Gary Wheeler wrote:

Hmmm. Haven't had our coffee this morning, have we?

Actually, I had two espresso. :-D

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AbhishekBK

Man........ the web rocks.

Abhishek It is impossible to change your past. But it is very possible to ruin your present by worring about the future. -Chankya

Gary Wheeler

:omg: I would be doing the anti-gravity dance on the ceiling after two espresso...

Software Zen: delete this;

Dario Solera

AbhishekBK wrote:

Man........ the web rocks.

Did you at least read my post?

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Dario Solera

I usually have 4-5 a day. :-O

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AbhishekBK

I did. Every time, you read a networking tutorial, you will come across things like standards and protocols. All these standardization really doesn’t get the stuff to work. It only makes it standardized. What you are talking about is the lack of standardization in some areas in the web development and what hell it is to put up with that mess. But I think it is ok. It is not because the web sux. It is only because, that how new technologies develop. Independently, mostly without synchronization with other technologies for some time.

Abhishek It is impossible to change your past. But it is very possible to ruin your present by worring about the future. -Chankya

peterchen

That's why I love standards - there are so many to choose from!

We are a big screwed up dysfunctional psychotic happy family - some more screwed up, others more happy, but everybody's psychotic joint venture definition of CP
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Dario Solera

AbhishekBK wrote:

But I think it is ok.

As a user, I say the web is great. As a developer... you already know my opinion.

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Dario Solera

Paul Watson wrote:

Desktop dev is good for desktop apps. Web dev is good for web apps.

That's a very complex statement. Could you explain it better? (Just joking, I see what you mean)

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AbhishekBK

Dario Solera wrote:

As a developer... you already know my opinion.

Yes. I see what you are saying. But "sux" as in what? "sux" as in the guys who made it did a lousy job, or lousy thinking? Or they did not care of developers enough? Where, according to you, did they screw up?

Abhishek It is impossible to change your past. But it is very possible to ruin your present by worring about the future. -Chankya

Dario Solera

AbhishekBK wrote:

But "sux" as in what?

In the fact that the web developer has to take care of incompatibilities, hacks, tricks and all the like in order to make a web application work in any context and with any browser; the developer loses the focus on the part of the development that really matters (i.e. business logic, security, performances, and so on).

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AbhishekBK

Dario Solera wrote:

the part of the development that really matters (i.e. business logic, security, performances, and so on)

That's fair enough. That's the only thing unique to the application under consideration anyway. But, I am only saying, mostly you say it "sux" if you think the guys who made it, did a lousy job. If they did well, and still web development seems be incomprehensible; then web development is just plain difficult. And complicated and may be irritating as well. But the web "sux"? That somehow does not fit.

Abhishek It is impossible to change your past. But it is very possible to ruin your present by worring about the future. -Chankya

Sceptic Mole

:cool:

CodeGuy

Steve Yegge agrees with you.[^]

Shog9 0

Michael P Butler wrote:

Or at least take back the intranet development from the web-app developers.

While i've seen far too many disastrous intranet apps, the web apps have hardly been the worst of the lot. For all the talk about how competing web "standards" cause problems for developers, the truth is there are plenty of poorly-understood desktop "standards" as well, not to mention "best practices" and "things that will almost certainly break some machines if you don't get 'em right". Got a web app that doesn't look right in Firefox? Ok, so i'll use IE. Or throw together some Greasemonkey. No biggie. Got a desktop app full of hardcoded IDs, paths, and connection strings? Ah... now there are problems. Of course, the abomination that was ActiveX-in-IE just brought together the worst of both worlds.

every night, i kneel at the foot of my bed and thank the Great Overseeing Politicians for protecting my freedoms by reducing their number, as if they were deer in a state park. -- Chris Losinger, Online Poker Players?

Michael P Butler

Paul Watson wrote:

Do you really think a proprietary system from Microsoft is going to come to dominate the web in the next 5 to 10 years? That web-apps will fall away to be replaced by desktop applications with internet smarts?

The battle won't be fought on the web first. The first shots will be fired on the "intranet". Currently the ease of deployment of "web-apps" makes most IT managers think that they should be writing their business systems to be run from a browser. As most managers are buzz-word driven, I think XAML and WPF will get its first foothold by replacing the cumbersome web-based intranet apps with easy to deploy smart-clients using .NET and WPF. Web services and business2business web apps will play a big part, but they won't have any UI or design elements. It will be pure data that is past from site to site.

Michael CP Blog [^] Development Blog [^]