Thanks for the info - I was interested in iPad apps, but put off by the $99 just to download and look over the SDK.
A web app sounds better - you wouldn't have to write a different one for every smartphone. -----Original Message----- >From: Bill Stephenson <bi...@ezinvoice.com> >Sent: Feb 21, 2010 4:19 PM >To: Perl MacOSX <macosx@perl.org> >Subject: Web Apps > >I started playing with iPhone/iTouch/iPad "web apps" just last week. > >http://developer.apple.com/safari/library/navigation/ >index.html#section=Resource%20Types&topic=Coding%20How-Tos > >Apple has made it incredibly easy to create a web app that runs exactly >like a native app on these devices. > >Of course, perl is a perfect server side language to power these apps, >and BBEdit and Perl on a Mac make the perfect IDE to create these web >apps. > >While poking around there I also found out that Safari on the Mac OS >also provides some big enhancements for web based apps now too. Check >this out: > >"Safari on iPhone, Mac OS X, and Windows all implement the Offline Web >Applications feature of HTML5. This feature allows you to cache all of >the resource files for your web application on the client, improving >the load time of your application and making it possible to create an >application which is fully functional even when there is no network >connection." > >(source: >http://developer.apple.com/safari/library/codinghowtos/Desktop/ >DataManagement/index.html) > >This is actually fulfilling a vision I expressed right here waaay back >in 2005: > >http://www.mail-archive.com/macosx@perl.org/msg08946.html > >Geez, It's like they've been working all this time for me entirely for >free ;) > >Seriously, according to the news this week it now looks like most all >"Smart Phone" makers will adapt a similar, if not the same, approach to >web based apps that run on these devices. > >Think about it, Apple knows that laptops and desktops need to be able >to run these same applications because it provides a fast and >inexpensive way for developers to integrate the use of these >applications with these different devices. Users want that, and they >want them to "Feel" like a native application too. Apple is essentially >giving them that. > >So, looking forward it's easy to imagine that many "Native" apps will >really be "Web Apps". The client side will contain the necessary tools >to run them. Updates and upgrades happen "at the atomic level" on the >server side and are instant and seamless and distributed as soon as the >software is accessed. (that's something I learned right here ;) > >The advantages to developers both small and large are huge. I now >believe this is exactly where Apple is heading and as you can imagine, >I'm absolutely thrilled about it :) > >-- > >Bill Stephenson >
