On Fri, Sep 11, 2009 at 11:08 AM, Nasir Barday <nbarday+i...@gmail.com<nbarday%2bi...@gmail.com> > wrote:
> Ambrose wrote: > >> They might cache apps/data locally temporarily, but it's not as permanent >> as local apps. >> > > Google Gears took this distinction away from local apps long ago, no? > --- Depends on how you look at it; it's definitely not black and white. There were solutions before Gears that worked around the limitations of browsers in these areas, and there are some since. Gears is a browser extension. You might note I mentioned SL has richer local data storage, too, but SL also has its own execution and rendering environment, so I say it qualifies more as a "browser" in the sense of an OS replacement (from a user perspective). When I think of OS apps and data, I think of the apps (as installed into their respective local app dirs) and, more often than not, the files that the apps consume/produce, which are often known to the user and usually are the "home"/record of reference for these things. There are exceptions, of course, like installed mail clients that are a hybrid that uses permanent local app storage but can have temporary/cache for data. But both Gears and SL have more like a cache than a (more or less) permanent OS file system (FS). Gears, AIUI, is not even really a virtual file system but just a database (file). SL has a virtual FS (called Isolated Storage). They both store their stuff (currently anyways) in a hidden place on the OS FS that is not intended to be known or accessed directly by people. Both are intended not as the "home" of the data they keep but rather as a cache to either speed access to application data (and ergo better app performance) or have a local cache of server data for use when the server is not available. Or both. But you don't build an app on these things relying on the local data to be the permanent home. Basically, the same applies to the application itself, especially for gears, which doesn't (necessarily) provide full application capabilities. It really depends on the server to fully function and again, the apps are cached--their home is in the cloud. So that's what I mean by saying "not as permanent as local apps." It may have been more precise to say something like "not as the permanent home of these, like local apps." HTH. -a ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
