AJAX to me is like JIT (Just in Time) inventory. As far as normal
business it looks really good, keeps costs down, minimizes the need
for local warehouses.....
But....
Let a hurricane or something happen and "JIT ain't worth sh*t". The
local economy here in Baton Rouge, LA bit the dust for a month
because there was no local inventory and the interstate problems
prevented re-supply. The local mom and pop shops that can't afford
JIT due to their lower sales volume tended to have more on their
shelves consistently the next month and a half than all of the big
box stores. That was partly due to the stock in their stores as well
as they buy from local "middle man" distributors who also had inventory.
AJAX is good at trying to overcome the remote delivery piece of the
"Network App", but once something happens and your customers can not
reach or use the app, many will go right back to the regular
desktop. As a telecom employee, I would rather bet my app on the
hardware sitting at my clients desk than a remote server connected
via the "Internet" regardless of the bandwidth. Optical connections
get dug up by back hoes on a regular basis down here seems
like... :-) And the recent earth quake in the Asian Pacific also
took out a large chunk of bandwidth.
I've watched the "thin" computers come in and go out due to the wide
impact to the business once a server or server connection fails. The
company I work for now, as well as the previous company, have both
left the thin model due to business impact.
Just something to think about when building an app for a client.
:-)
Eric Doolittle
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Jan 6, 2007, at 5:03 AM, Andy Dent wrote:
On 06/01/2007, at 1:03 PM, Daniel L. Taylor wrote:
Or with the improvements in AJAX techniques, programs such as
http://
www.gliffy.com/ replace offline apps altogether.
Yeah...I've heard that one before. In the late 90's I believe. I
didn't buy it then either ;-)
It is possible you could be more cynical than me about silver
bullets, especially when it comes to GUI app development and cross-
platform solutions. Unlikely, but just possible :-)
The reason I posted a URL was to get people to have a look at just
how seriously good such apps can be. *I* was pretty impressed. I
suspect I will also be impressed by some of the Google Apps if I
test them.
A completely online architecture might at least have a shot if app
sizes, I/O, and CPU requirements were the same as in, oh, 1990.
But they're not even close.
AJAX style stuff isn't download, it's incremental download of bits
as you need them (If you ever did 4D stuff, much like their very
smart server downloaded recompiled individual subroutines, forms
etc. as you requested them). It's little bits of JavaScript talking
back to a server in real-time. Of course it requires a connection
but apart from that the bandwidth can be very low.
I would consider it a major advantage if RS had some form of legal
agreement or escrow whereby if the company ever went under, RB
would be open sourced automatically.
I would also consider it a major advantage to be able to purchase
a license whereby I not only got RB, but the source to RB, even
under NDA and even if I had to submit all improvements back to RS.
(Naturally I would expect that to be the most expensive purchase
option.)
Whilst it would be a pain, if you got source to the frameworks
alone that would be enough to guarantee "worst case support" to
most clients.
Compiler and IDE would be nice but not strictly essential - there
could be a migration and there would be a huge rush to fill the gap
using one of the other BASIC compilers out there.
In the case of a source-license, what's to really prevent the
source from ending up on BitTorrent?
Nothing, which is why I am very against any suggestions that tie
the chance of framework source access to bolder suggestions to
releasing source to the IDE.
Andy Dent BSc MACS http://www.oofile.com.au/
OOFILE - Database, Reports, Graphs, GUI for c++ on multiple platforms
REALbasic, Python, Mac and Windows development and porting
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