* Joshua Juran <jju...@gmail.com> [2008-03-25 09:05]: > On Mar 24, 2008, at 5:28 PM, Phil Pennock wrote: >> On 2008-03-24 at 07:26 -0700, Joshua Juran wrote: >>> A desktop application can download mail or news batch-wise >>> for offline viewing, but a Web app can't, except for what it >>> can cram into the browser session -- it can't automatically >>> save anything to disk. >> >> Not true any longer. Whether or not this is a good thing, I >> leave to you to decide. ;^) Also: only in the, uhm, "fuller" >> graphical browsers. > > Exactly my point. The whole premise of Web development's > superiority over the desktop is that it's platform independent > -- you don't have to build for every device you want to > support. But any plugins you rely on have to be built and > deployed for each device, canceling the advantage.
DOM Storage is part of HTML5. I don't know where Microsoft stands with regard to it, but I know all the other major vendors have stated their intent to support it in their browsers. Some of them already do. I think I've heard that Google Gears is compatible with that API, but I'm not sure my memory is correct. But even if this is false, the point stands that in the not too far future, you won't need platform dependent code to add offline capabilities to a web app. Regards, -- Aristotle Pagaltzis // <http://plasmasturm.org/>
