On Nov 4, 2010, at 11:21 AM, Reinier Zwitserloot wrote: > I'd love to believe it. I'd be somewhat more convinced if there were > libraries / frameworks out there that let you write a desktop app in > the form of servlets and templates / static HTML/js/css files, and > some hooks for app startup, shutdown, and some interaction for the > very minimal "chrome" (UI elements) on the window edges, and then > packages it up for you into a single executable which, when run, opens > a webkit / gecko embedded browser, starts up an internal server, and > makes it "just work". > > Something like iTunes (the music store part runs on HTML, or so I > hear), or Steam (which is all HTML running on top of an embedded > webkit). > > As far as I know no such tool is available for java, nor for python, > ruby, or the CLR. Personally I'd say such a desktop environment would > easily be far nicer to write in than swing, and has the considerable > advantage that you can share a lot of code between this desktop > version and a web-based app. You also can use all the latest and > greatest HTML5 features, because you know exactly what kind of browser > you end up running on (though this conflicts with the "hey, I can turn > this into a webapp in a snap" idea).
I think Swing is a pretty great environment for writing desktop apps, but that comes with lots of practice. I find it highly amusing that people are bemoaning how hard it is to write desktop apps in an HTML browser. Well DUH. It was never designed for that purpose. It is designed to display marked-up text. Period. Everything else has been bolted on with staples and duct tape. If you want to write a desktop application, use a desktop application framework like Swing or SWT (in the Java world), or Qt if you want to go mostly-native but a little cross platform. Or if cross platform is not an issue at all, use Cocoa on the Mac and/or .Net on Windows. I think maybe the reason there's so much effort to turn the browser into something it was never meant to be is that like all humans, people tend to stick with what they know, and don't want to invest the mental energy into learning new frameworks (like Swing) that have already solved all these problems. Rob -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to javapo...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to javaposse+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
