So it begins...
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Google Gears[^] Google Gears is an open source browser extension that lets developers create web applications that can run offline. It's already operational within Google Reader to allow access to your 2000 most recent items. You can bet that GMail, "Docs & Spreadsheets" and Google Calendar are not far behind. Granted these web apps are a far cry from MS Office in robustness but for the unwashed masses they might be good enough. Should be interesting to see how this sorts itself out. Thoughts?
"Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest." - Isaac Asimov
It answers the question, What happens to my fancy Google Enabled Web App when the internet is down.. Till today, it was it's DEAD, After today, it's crippled but still alive. One more of the reasons not to Web-base our applications goes down...
Steven S. Ashley
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...and bob is bob.
Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself. - Cicero
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Google Gears[^] Google Gears is an open source browser extension that lets developers create web applications that can run offline. It's already operational within Google Reader to allow access to your 2000 most recent items. You can bet that GMail, "Docs & Spreadsheets" and Google Calendar are not far behind. Granted these web apps are a far cry from MS Office in robustness but for the unwashed masses they might be good enough. Should be interesting to see how this sorts itself out. Thoughts?
"Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest." - Isaac Asimov
Thanks for the link Mike. I'm not sure a browser extension is the right way long term as it misses out on a lot of users who have no idea what a browser extension is. Maybe if later down the road they roll it into the Google Toolbar but even that doesn't have wide distribution. Interesting times for developers though. We are looking into making our web-app offlineable.
regards, Paul Watson Ireland & South Africa
Shog9 wrote:
And with that, Paul closed his browser, sipped his herbal tea, fixed the flower in his hair, and smiled brightly at the multitude of cute, furry animals flocking around the grassy hillside where he sat coding Ruby on his Mac...
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Google Gears[^] Google Gears is an open source browser extension that lets developers create web applications that can run offline. It's already operational within Google Reader to allow access to your 2000 most recent items. You can bet that GMail, "Docs & Spreadsheets" and Google Calendar are not far behind. Granted these web apps are a far cry from MS Office in robustness but for the unwashed masses they might be good enough. Should be interesting to see how this sorts itself out. Thoughts?
"Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest." - Isaac Asimov
One more thing to encourage people to write "applications" in a web browser. Yuck.
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
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One more thing to encourage people to write "applications" in a web browser. Yuck.
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
Christopher Duncan wrote:
One more thing to encourage people to write "applications" in a web browser. Yuck.
I imagine that typewriter manufacturers had similar feelings when word processors were invented. ;) In the long run, it's either a good idea or it's not. Hopefully it succeeds or fails on that criteria alone rather than any outside influences.
"Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest." - Isaac Asimov
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It answers the question, What happens to my fancy Google Enabled Web App when the internet is down.. Till today, it was it's DEAD, After today, it's crippled but still alive. One more of the reasons not to Web-base our applications goes down...
Steven S. Ashley
Steven Ashley wrote:
After today, it's crippled but still alive.
What makes you think it will be crippled? :confused:
"Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest." - Isaac Asimov
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Thanks for the link Mike. I'm not sure a browser extension is the right way long term as it misses out on a lot of users who have no idea what a browser extension is. Maybe if later down the road they roll it into the Google Toolbar but even that doesn't have wide distribution. Interesting times for developers though. We are looking into making our web-app offlineable.
regards, Paul Watson Ireland & South Africa
Shog9 wrote:
And with that, Paul closed his browser, sipped his herbal tea, fixed the flower in his hair, and smiled brightly at the multitude of cute, furry animals flocking around the grassy hillside where he sat coding Ruby on his Mac...
Paul Watson wrote:
I'm not sure a browser extension is the right way long term as it misses out on a lot of users who have no idea what a browser extension is.
I have faith that Google can keep that part simple enough to make it ubiquitous. Right now, I'm just not sure they can make the "Doc & Spreadsheets" robust enough. Between having more competition (OpenOffice, Google Apps & Apple's resurgence) and the fact that the new MS Office file formats are finally becoming open & standard it should be quite interesting in that space over the next few years.
"Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest." - Isaac Asimov
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Thanks for the link Mike. I'm not sure a browser extension is the right way long term as it misses out on a lot of users who have no idea what a browser extension is. Maybe if later down the road they roll it into the Google Toolbar but even that doesn't have wide distribution. Interesting times for developers though. We are looking into making our web-app offlineable.
regards, Paul Watson Ireland & South Africa
Shog9 wrote:
And with that, Paul closed his browser, sipped his herbal tea, fixed the flower in his hair, and smiled brightly at the multitude of cute, furry animals flocking around the grassy hillside where he sat coding Ruby on his Mac...
Paul Watson wrote:
I'm not sure a browser extension is the right way long term as it misses out on a lot of users who have no idea what a browser extension is. Maybe if later down the road they roll it into the Google Toolbar but even that doesn't have wide distribution.
Aren't the folks at Mozilla talking about building this kind of stuff into FireFox?
"Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest." - Isaac Asimov
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...and bob is bob.
Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself. - Cicero
That made it all so clear to me... Thanks.
-Luke vdH
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One more thing to encourage people to write "applications" in a web browser. Yuck.
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
Isn't this sort of thing what Java is made for?!
============================= I'm a developer, he's a developer, she's a developer, Wouldn'tcha like to be a developer too?
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Isn't this sort of thing what Java is made for?!
============================= I'm a developer, he's a developer, she's a developer, Wouldn'tcha like to be a developer too?
Chadwick Posey wrote:
I'm a developer, he's a developer, she's a developer, Wouldn'tcha like to be a developer too?
:laugh:
Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself. - Cicero
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Steven Ashley wrote:
After today, it's crippled but still alive.
What makes you think it will be crippled? :confused:
"Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest." - Isaac Asimov
Perhaps crippled is too strong a word, it must be the DBA in me. Any time an application is disconnected from it primary data source, their is a chance that the primary data source will change. The risk of this, and the risk that it can effect the user of the application, vary greatly from application to application. In a lot of cases the data is static enough - (Google Reader, Email) as not to create any problems but I would not want to put a Stock Trading application in the same situation. When I say crippled, I mean "Not Fully Functional", as developers our challenge is to correctly handle these unexpected changes properly. Sorry for any confusion I created. ;)
Steven S. Ashley