HMTL and Broken Promises
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So the big selling point of HTML is that it is supposed to be the 'write once, run everywhere' savior of the development world. Ever since I started in development the hope and dream of the hucksters selling this nonsense has been a nearly here future state of total bliss - which never really seems to arrive. From the beginning I've doubted this vision for one reason: There are too many cooks in the kitchen. What I mean is that different bodies have control over every aspect of the development environment. The OS may be by Microsoft, the browser by Google, the Java run time by Oracle, the HTML standard by the W3C... and so on - all businesses that are, interestingly enough, competing with one another in a cut throat game of survival. I find this frustrating because instead of getting better the situation is getting worse. Chrome and Firefox push out new versions on a near weekly basis, and Microsoft, attempting to keep up, is starting to push out new, substantially altered versions at a much quicker pace. So now, where I work, we have to keep users on IE 9 because enterprise level software (a website) doesn't work in anything but IE 9. Far from being write once, run anywhere, we instead have this nightmare of re-certifying browsers at an ever increasing pace. We also have to 'fix' machines where the user has upgraded a browser to a higher version than what is supported. Usually an additional version of a browser is out before the last version is certified. It's a nightmare. Compare that with my .net application that I wrote in 2003 - now 10 years old - that continues to hum along, even in Windows 7, with no changes. Someone stop the insanity.
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So the big selling point of HTML is that it is supposed to be the 'write once, run everywhere' savior of the development world. Ever since I started in development the hope and dream of the hucksters selling this nonsense has been a nearly here future state of total bliss - which never really seems to arrive. From the beginning I've doubted this vision for one reason: There are too many cooks in the kitchen. What I mean is that different bodies have control over every aspect of the development environment. The OS may be by Microsoft, the browser by Google, the Java run time by Oracle, the HTML standard by the W3C... and so on - all businesses that are, interestingly enough, competing with one another in a cut throat game of survival. I find this frustrating because instead of getting better the situation is getting worse. Chrome and Firefox push out new versions on a near weekly basis, and Microsoft, attempting to keep up, is starting to push out new, substantially altered versions at a much quicker pace. So now, where I work, we have to keep users on IE 9 because enterprise level software (a website) doesn't work in anything but IE 9. Far from being write once, run anywhere, we instead have this nightmare of re-certifying browsers at an ever increasing pace. We also have to 'fix' machines where the user has upgraded a browser to a higher version than what is supported. Usually an additional version of a browser is out before the last version is certified. It's a nightmare. Compare that with my .net application that I wrote in 2003 - now 10 years old - that continues to hum along, even in Windows 7, with no changes. Someone stop the insanity.
Are you sure that's a problem with HTML and not the browsers?
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So the big selling point of HTML is that it is supposed to be the 'write once, run everywhere' savior of the development world. Ever since I started in development the hope and dream of the hucksters selling this nonsense has been a nearly here future state of total bliss - which never really seems to arrive. From the beginning I've doubted this vision for one reason: There are too many cooks in the kitchen. What I mean is that different bodies have control over every aspect of the development environment. The OS may be by Microsoft, the browser by Google, the Java run time by Oracle, the HTML standard by the W3C... and so on - all businesses that are, interestingly enough, competing with one another in a cut throat game of survival. I find this frustrating because instead of getting better the situation is getting worse. Chrome and Firefox push out new versions on a near weekly basis, and Microsoft, attempting to keep up, is starting to push out new, substantially altered versions at a much quicker pace. So now, where I work, we have to keep users on IE 9 because enterprise level software (a website) doesn't work in anything but IE 9. Far from being write once, run anywhere, we instead have this nightmare of re-certifying browsers at an ever increasing pace. We also have to 'fix' machines where the user has upgraded a browser to a higher version than what is supported. Usually an additional version of a browser is out before the last version is certified. It's a nightmare. Compare that with my .net application that I wrote in 2003 - now 10 years old - that continues to hum along, even in Windows 7, with no changes. Someone stop the insanity.
MehGerbil wrote:
that continues to hum along, even in Windows 7, with no changes.
Yes, but at what expense ? This backward compatibility requires a bloated OS. Your software should work for definite versions of browsers. It is not a requirement to be able to anticipate the future, e.g. new browser updates. I find the constant re-certification, even at high pace, better than having to drag a lot of old code in the browser just for backwards-compatibility. Plus, with adequate and automated unit-testing, the effort of re-certifying should not be that much, since the delta between two browser versions is not that great. At least, it is much smaller than modifications between two OSes, for instance.
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus Do not feed the troll ! - Common proverb
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So the big selling point of HTML is that it is supposed to be the 'write once, run everywhere' savior of the development world. Ever since I started in development the hope and dream of the hucksters selling this nonsense has been a nearly here future state of total bliss - which never really seems to arrive. From the beginning I've doubted this vision for one reason: There are too many cooks in the kitchen. What I mean is that different bodies have control over every aspect of the development environment. The OS may be by Microsoft, the browser by Google, the Java run time by Oracle, the HTML standard by the W3C... and so on - all businesses that are, interestingly enough, competing with one another in a cut throat game of survival. I find this frustrating because instead of getting better the situation is getting worse. Chrome and Firefox push out new versions on a near weekly basis, and Microsoft, attempting to keep up, is starting to push out new, substantially altered versions at a much quicker pace. So now, where I work, we have to keep users on IE 9 because enterprise level software (a website) doesn't work in anything but IE 9. Far from being write once, run anywhere, we instead have this nightmare of re-certifying browsers at an ever increasing pace. We also have to 'fix' machines where the user has upgraded a browser to a higher version than what is supported. Usually an additional version of a browser is out before the last version is certified. It's a nightmare. Compare that with my .net application that I wrote in 2003 - now 10 years old - that continues to hum along, even in Windows 7, with no changes. Someone stop the insanity.
I think Win8 / WinRT store app show great promise! They are native app, which auto update automatically, install without admin right needed. Shortly they have the advantages of web and native development with the only disadvantage of needing Win8... Eventually they will become a hit, I hope! :P
My programming get away... The Blog... DirectX for WinRT/C# since 2013! Taking over the world since 1371!
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So the big selling point of HTML is that it is supposed to be the 'write once, run everywhere' savior of the development world. Ever since I started in development the hope and dream of the hucksters selling this nonsense has been a nearly here future state of total bliss - which never really seems to arrive. From the beginning I've doubted this vision for one reason: There are too many cooks in the kitchen. What I mean is that different bodies have control over every aspect of the development environment. The OS may be by Microsoft, the browser by Google, the Java run time by Oracle, the HTML standard by the W3C... and so on - all businesses that are, interestingly enough, competing with one another in a cut throat game of survival. I find this frustrating because instead of getting better the situation is getting worse. Chrome and Firefox push out new versions on a near weekly basis, and Microsoft, attempting to keep up, is starting to push out new, substantially altered versions at a much quicker pace. So now, where I work, we have to keep users on IE 9 because enterprise level software (a website) doesn't work in anything but IE 9. Far from being write once, run anywhere, we instead have this nightmare of re-certifying browsers at an ever increasing pace. We also have to 'fix' machines where the user has upgraded a browser to a higher version than what is supported. Usually an additional version of a browser is out before the last version is certified. It's a nightmare. Compare that with my .net application that I wrote in 2003 - now 10 years old - that continues to hum along, even in Windows 7, with no changes. Someone stop the insanity.
The solution is not to write stuff that runs inside a browser. Browsers are being treated like virtual machines, these days, where you stop using your computer to do anything, and let the browser handle everything -- all HTML5 and its ilk have added to the mix is huge memory consumption. I used to complain when IE4 used up 12 Meg of memory. Now, the average web-site requires fifty times that much, to run 15 different apps for advertising, tracking, cutesy graphics/layout stuff, and even for doing very basic level display-type stuff. The browser has become the hammer that is the only tool in too many people's hands.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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So the big selling point of HTML is that it is supposed to be the 'write once, run everywhere' savior of the development world. Ever since I started in development the hope and dream of the hucksters selling this nonsense has been a nearly here future state of total bliss - which never really seems to arrive. From the beginning I've doubted this vision for one reason: There are too many cooks in the kitchen. What I mean is that different bodies have control over every aspect of the development environment. The OS may be by Microsoft, the browser by Google, the Java run time by Oracle, the HTML standard by the W3C... and so on - all businesses that are, interestingly enough, competing with one another in a cut throat game of survival. I find this frustrating because instead of getting better the situation is getting worse. Chrome and Firefox push out new versions on a near weekly basis, and Microsoft, attempting to keep up, is starting to push out new, substantially altered versions at a much quicker pace. So now, where I work, we have to keep users on IE 9 because enterprise level software (a website) doesn't work in anything but IE 9. Far from being write once, run anywhere, we instead have this nightmare of re-certifying browsers at an ever increasing pace. We also have to 'fix' machines where the user has upgraded a browser to a higher version than what is supported. Usually an additional version of a browser is out before the last version is certified. It's a nightmare. Compare that with my .net application that I wrote in 2003 - now 10 years old - that continues to hum along, even in Windows 7, with no changes. Someone stop the insanity.
O they plan* a major fix for all that in HTML8 (or 9 at most), it should be out in no-time and then you'll see the wait has been worthwhile * Plan and re-plan and reformat the re-planned plan, then compare with the other committees and so forth
Never underestimate the difference U can make in the lives of others.
∫(Edo)dx = Tzumer ∑k(this.Kid)k = this.♥
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Are you sure that's a problem with HTML and not the browsers?
What is HTML without a browser? The entire thing is a development stack that must work as a whole. In short, it doesn't matter to me, blame the browser, blame java script, blame HTML, blame Oracle - doesn't matter who is at fault the fact is the whole thing isn't delivering on it's main selling point.
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The solution is not to write stuff that runs inside a browser. Browsers are being treated like virtual machines, these days, where you stop using your computer to do anything, and let the browser handle everything -- all HTML5 and its ilk have added to the mix is huge memory consumption. I used to complain when IE4 used up 12 Meg of memory. Now, the average web-site requires fifty times that much, to run 15 different apps for advertising, tracking, cutesy graphics/layout stuff, and even for doing very basic level display-type stuff. The browser has become the hammer that is the only tool in too many people's hands.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
Mark_Wallace wrote:
The solution is not to write stuff that runs inside a browser.
And that leaves business applications where, exactly? If the 'write once, run once' promise means constant post backs then why not write an application that uses a fax machine for client/server communications? :-D
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MehGerbil wrote:
that continues to hum along, even in Windows 7, with no changes.
Yes, but at what expense ? This backward compatibility requires a bloated OS. Your software should work for definite versions of browsers. It is not a requirement to be able to anticipate the future, e.g. new browser updates. I find the constant re-certification, even at high pace, better than having to drag a lot of old code in the browser just for backwards-compatibility. Plus, with adequate and automated unit-testing, the effort of re-certifying should not be that much, since the delta between two browser versions is not that great. At least, it is much smaller than modifications between two OSes, for instance.
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus Do not feed the troll ! - Common proverb
Rage wrote:
Yes, but at what expense ? This backward compatibility requires a bloated OS.
I don't care for a bloated OS, but what is the alternative? Is the only alternative pushing out a new OS every couple of years and forcing users to upgrade every piece of software they own? Apple can get away with that - if Microsoft did that there would be lawsuits.
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Rage wrote:
Yes, but at what expense ? This backward compatibility requires a bloated OS.
I don't care for a bloated OS, but what is the alternative? Is the only alternative pushing out a new OS every couple of years and forcing users to upgrade every piece of software they own? Apple can get away with that - if Microsoft did that there would be lawsuits.
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So the big selling point of HTML is that it is supposed to be the 'write once, run everywhere' savior of the development world. Ever since I started in development the hope and dream of the hucksters selling this nonsense has been a nearly here future state of total bliss - which never really seems to arrive. From the beginning I've doubted this vision for one reason: There are too many cooks in the kitchen. What I mean is that different bodies have control over every aspect of the development environment. The OS may be by Microsoft, the browser by Google, the Java run time by Oracle, the HTML standard by the W3C... and so on - all businesses that are, interestingly enough, competing with one another in a cut throat game of survival. I find this frustrating because instead of getting better the situation is getting worse. Chrome and Firefox push out new versions on a near weekly basis, and Microsoft, attempting to keep up, is starting to push out new, substantially altered versions at a much quicker pace. So now, where I work, we have to keep users on IE 9 because enterprise level software (a website) doesn't work in anything but IE 9. Far from being write once, run anywhere, we instead have this nightmare of re-certifying browsers at an ever increasing pace. We also have to 'fix' machines where the user has upgraded a browser to a higher version than what is supported. Usually an additional version of a browser is out before the last version is certified. It's a nightmare. Compare that with my .net application that I wrote in 2003 - now 10 years old - that continues to hum along, even in Windows 7, with no changes. Someone stop the insanity.
I find it funny (but in an "you idiots" kind of way) that after years of great effort, JavaScript is finally compiled about as well as 10 year old C compilers used to compile C. And it's celebrated as a great success. And it's called "native performance", despite not even being close, not by today's standards of "native performance". It's like injecting a slow zombie with an unhealthy dose of adrenalin (but hey, he's already dead) to make it faster, while you already have a bunch of perfectly good living humans who are naturally fast.
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So the big selling point of HTML is that it is supposed to be the 'write once, run everywhere' savior of the development world. Ever since I started in development the hope and dream of the hucksters selling this nonsense has been a nearly here future state of total bliss - which never really seems to arrive. From the beginning I've doubted this vision for one reason: There are too many cooks in the kitchen. What I mean is that different bodies have control over every aspect of the development environment. The OS may be by Microsoft, the browser by Google, the Java run time by Oracle, the HTML standard by the W3C... and so on - all businesses that are, interestingly enough, competing with one another in a cut throat game of survival. I find this frustrating because instead of getting better the situation is getting worse. Chrome and Firefox push out new versions on a near weekly basis, and Microsoft, attempting to keep up, is starting to push out new, substantially altered versions at a much quicker pace. So now, where I work, we have to keep users on IE 9 because enterprise level software (a website) doesn't work in anything but IE 9. Far from being write once, run anywhere, we instead have this nightmare of re-certifying browsers at an ever increasing pace. We also have to 'fix' machines where the user has upgraded a browser to a higher version than what is supported. Usually an additional version of a browser is out before the last version is certified. It's a nightmare. Compare that with my .net application that I wrote in 2003 - now 10 years old - that continues to hum along, even in Windows 7, with no changes. Someone stop the insanity.
MehGerbil wrote:
Compare that with my .net application that I wrote in 2003
yes but does that application developed over 10 years ago have the potential of running on virtually any modern platform?
MehGerbil wrote:
enterprise level software (a website) doesn't work in anything but IE 9
blame the developer of the software and not the browser or the OS. properly developed software for the web should run on any modern browser. should I as a developer for a website though assure that my work run on older versions of IE (6, 7, 8)? Well that really depends on the features that my users are requesting doesn't it? as technology progresses we will continually leave things of old behind in the dust because of the expectations of what needs to be done today/tomorrow. with technology progressing at faster paces than before this point will only become more noticeable. that application you wrote 10 years ago I am sure didn't run on windows 95. a technology that using your dates was less than 10 years old. even if it did so it's abilities were limited because of how well .Net ran on 95 boxes.
you want something inspirational??
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MehGerbil wrote:
Apple can get away with that
Exactly. So why not ?
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus Do not feed the troll ! - Common proverb
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MehGerbil wrote:
Compare that with my .net application that I wrote in 2003
yes but does that application developed over 10 years ago have the potential of running on virtually any modern platform?
MehGerbil wrote:
enterprise level software (a website) doesn't work in anything but IE 9
blame the developer of the software and not the browser or the OS. properly developed software for the web should run on any modern browser. should I as a developer for a website though assure that my work run on older versions of IE (6, 7, 8)? Well that really depends on the features that my users are requesting doesn't it? as technology progresses we will continually leave things of old behind in the dust because of the expectations of what needs to be done today/tomorrow. with technology progressing at faster paces than before this point will only become more noticeable. that application you wrote 10 years ago I am sure didn't run on windows 95. a technology that using your dates was less than 10 years old. even if it did so it's abilities were limited because of how well .Net ran on 95 boxes.
you want something inspirational??
Dennis E White wrote:
yes but does that application developed over 10 years ago have the potential of running on virtually any modern platform?
This is the HTML selling point that really isn't working out terribly well for any application more complicated than a website that catalogs LOLCats images. The first problem is that my applications don't have to run on virtually any modern platform - it did manage to jump up through a couple of OS changes over the past 10 years and that meets our needs. The second problem is that nobody is going to develop a substantial business application that works equally well on a smartphone, and iPad, and a desktop without a great deal of UI branching so even for HTML the 'virtually any modern platform' is misleading - not without a great deal of work to make it presentable
Dennis E White wrote:
that application you wrote 10 years ago I am sure didn't run on windows 95. a technology that using your dates was less than 10 years old. even if it did so it's abilities were limited because of how well .Net ran on 95 boxes.
Of course everything will eventually break as we move forward. My point is 10 years is much greater than the 6 month window it takes for the next browser release to break web based business applications.
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So the big selling point of HTML is that it is supposed to be the 'write once, run everywhere' savior of the development world. Ever since I started in development the hope and dream of the hucksters selling this nonsense has been a nearly here future state of total bliss - which never really seems to arrive. From the beginning I've doubted this vision for one reason: There are too many cooks in the kitchen. What I mean is that different bodies have control over every aspect of the development environment. The OS may be by Microsoft, the browser by Google, the Java run time by Oracle, the HTML standard by the W3C... and so on - all businesses that are, interestingly enough, competing with one another in a cut throat game of survival. I find this frustrating because instead of getting better the situation is getting worse. Chrome and Firefox push out new versions on a near weekly basis, and Microsoft, attempting to keep up, is starting to push out new, substantially altered versions at a much quicker pace. So now, where I work, we have to keep users on IE 9 because enterprise level software (a website) doesn't work in anything but IE 9. Far from being write once, run anywhere, we instead have this nightmare of re-certifying browsers at an ever increasing pace. We also have to 'fix' machines where the user has upgraded a browser to a higher version than what is supported. Usually an additional version of a browser is out before the last version is certified. It's a nightmare. Compare that with my .net application that I wrote in 2003 - now 10 years old - that continues to hum along, even in Windows 7, with no changes. Someone stop the insanity.
MehGerbil wrote:
the big selling point of HTML is that it is supposed to be the 'write once, run everywhere' savior of the development world
actually, that was Java. HTML + JS became what Java was supposed to be because Java applets were too much hassle.
MehGerbil wrote:
Compare that with my .net application that I wrote in 2003 - now 10 years old - that continues to hum along, even in Windows 7, with no changes.
many applications written in 2003 had to be substantially changed, to keep up with MS's ever-increasing user restrictions around things like the registry and file system. but yes, writing applications in HTML + JS + toolkitOfTheMonth to run on an ever-expanding universe of browsers is a challenge. that's why the jobs pay well.
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Dennis E White wrote:
yes but does that application developed over 10 years ago have the potential of running on virtually any modern platform?
This is the HTML selling point that really isn't working out terribly well for any application more complicated than a website that catalogs LOLCats images. The first problem is that my applications don't have to run on virtually any modern platform - it did manage to jump up through a couple of OS changes over the past 10 years and that meets our needs. The second problem is that nobody is going to develop a substantial business application that works equally well on a smartphone, and iPad, and a desktop without a great deal of UI branching so even for HTML the 'virtually any modern platform' is misleading - not without a great deal of work to make it presentable
Dennis E White wrote:
that application you wrote 10 years ago I am sure didn't run on windows 95. a technology that using your dates was less than 10 years old. even if it did so it's abilities were limited because of how well .Net ran on 95 boxes.
Of course everything will eventually break as we move forward. My point is 10 years is much greater than the 6 month window it takes for the next browser release to break web based business applications.
MehGerbil wrote:
The second problem is that nobody is going to develop a substantial business application that works equally well on a smartphone, and iPad, and a desktop without a great deal of UI branching so even for HTML the 'virtually any modern platform' is misleading - not without a great deal of work to make it presentable
In the world of web development we call this a responsive UI and yes a lot of business applications are being developed with this in mind. :)
MehGerbil wrote:
browser release to break web based business applications.
a majority of the time I find it is the web developer that did something wrong in the first place and not the browser.
you want something inspirational??
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MehGerbil wrote:
Compare that with my .net application that I wrote in 2003
yes but does that application developed over 10 years ago have the potential of running on virtually any modern platform?
MehGerbil wrote:
enterprise level software (a website) doesn't work in anything but IE 9
blame the developer of the software and not the browser or the OS. properly developed software for the web should run on any modern browser. should I as a developer for a website though assure that my work run on older versions of IE (6, 7, 8)? Well that really depends on the features that my users are requesting doesn't it? as technology progresses we will continually leave things of old behind in the dust because of the expectations of what needs to be done today/tomorrow. with technology progressing at faster paces than before this point will only become more noticeable. that application you wrote 10 years ago I am sure didn't run on windows 95. a technology that using your dates was less than 10 years old. even if it did so it's abilities were limited because of how well .Net ran on 95 boxes.
you want something inspirational??
Dennis E White wrote:
but does that application developed over 10 years ago have the potential of running on virtually any modern platform?
I'd rather run programs inside the DosBox VM than inside a browser that's being treated as a VM but isn't capable of properly fulfilling the role.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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The solution is not to write stuff that runs inside a browser. Browsers are being treated like virtual machines, these days, where you stop using your computer to do anything, and let the browser handle everything -- all HTML5 and its ilk have added to the mix is huge memory consumption. I used to complain when IE4 used up 12 Meg of memory. Now, the average web-site requires fifty times that much, to run 15 different apps for advertising, tracking, cutesy graphics/layout stuff, and even for doing very basic level display-type stuff. The browser has become the hammer that is the only tool in too many people's hands.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
Where I am at the moment we are writing the in-house business apps in winforms. We have agonised over whether to use ASP.NET and the conclusion we reached was that different browsers etc meant that we have more control if we enforce winforms. We are going to be looking at WPF at some point.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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So the big selling point of HTML is that it is supposed to be the 'write once, run everywhere' savior of the development world. Ever since I started in development the hope and dream of the hucksters selling this nonsense has been a nearly here future state of total bliss - which never really seems to arrive. From the beginning I've doubted this vision for one reason: There are too many cooks in the kitchen. What I mean is that different bodies have control over every aspect of the development environment. The OS may be by Microsoft, the browser by Google, the Java run time by Oracle, the HTML standard by the W3C... and so on - all businesses that are, interestingly enough, competing with one another in a cut throat game of survival. I find this frustrating because instead of getting better the situation is getting worse. Chrome and Firefox push out new versions on a near weekly basis, and Microsoft, attempting to keep up, is starting to push out new, substantially altered versions at a much quicker pace. So now, where I work, we have to keep users on IE 9 because enterprise level software (a website) doesn't work in anything but IE 9. Far from being write once, run anywhere, we instead have this nightmare of re-certifying browsers at an ever increasing pace. We also have to 'fix' machines where the user has upgraded a browser to a higher version than what is supported. Usually an additional version of a browser is out before the last version is certified. It's a nightmare. Compare that with my .net application that I wrote in 2003 - now 10 years old - that continues to hum along, even in Windows 7, with no changes. Someone stop the insanity.
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Clearly you need to start programming for the future, luckily HTML9 Boilerstrap[^] is here to help! (Also, if you're bored, go check their bug reports on Github, great for a laugh.)