Regular readers are probably wondering where the hell I’ve been these last few weeks– the answer is right here, but (for a change) suddenly productive & motivated! Unfortunately the thing I am working on is not really public right now, and also does not lead directly to any sort of income stream. It’s for fun and time-wasting and involves PHP, HTML, CSS, MySQL and JavaScript– it’s nice to have a holiday from C++ after all these years!
One thing that the Javascript/DOM event model has reminded me of is that there is an enormous amount you can do these days in a browser, and that Windows-only client applications totally suck balls. Yeah there are lots of shiny new APIs that Microsoft is offering which would make my life as a developer easier than dirty & archaic Win32 API or MFC… but do they run on a Mac? Oh, ok Silverlight does– but how about on an iPhone? You know, those devices that almost every single person I know owns…? Yes, Steve Jobs is a bastard for locking out Adobe and Microsoft, but just feeling sore about it won’t get your cross-platform app running any sooner.
Basically the thing I’m working on is a pure webapp, and the sloppy power and flexibility of it makes me want to draw up a big sign for developers which says:
If you can do it in a browser… then why not DO IT IN A GOD-DAMN BROWSER!
Imagine a simple game (eg Sudoku) you would like to play on your computer. You do a search and find various options for play… Which of the following messages sucks the least?
- “Click here to download sudoko_103.zip for Windows”
- “An applet from www.sudoku-online.net is requesting access to your computer – the digital certificate could not be verified”
- “This content requires a more recent version of Adobe Flash Player”
- “Play Now”
PS: Of course I know that many applications make no sense as webapps. In fact the two main projects I’m supposed to be working on right now, JujuEdit and Drivey, are perfect examples of applications totally unsuited to this approach. But the fact that I can’t just tweak them on the fly and try them out on 4 different platforms within seconds may be something to do with why I’m having trouble giving them the attention they so badly require.