Perhaps it's wise to consider an oft-quoted famous statement by Wayne Gretzky, "I don't skate to where the puck is. I skate to where it's going to be."
Let's count the number of OS'es now in need of support from multi plaftform IDEs: 1. MacOS Tiger, Lion and who knows what previous versions 2. Windows 7 and soon 8, not to mention 2000, XP and Vista still in use 3. iOS (iPad and iPhone) 4. Android and the many different flavors and versions it has for both phone and tablet. 5. HP's new WebOS 6. Doesn't Blackberry have a tablet OS? 7. ChromeOS and Chromebook 8. Linux and it's many different flavors 9. I'm sure I'm missing some Now the number of mainstream browsers: 1. Internet Explorer (I see where Google just end of lifed support of it in Gmail and Google Apps) 2. Chrome 3. Safari 4. Firefox It appears to me, the browsers are consolidating much quicker than any of the OS'es. In fact, the OS'es are all competing with each other by highlighting the differences, something the browsers have to be much more careful about. Assuming HTML5 becomes decently stable and robust AND capable, doesn't it make more sense to target it as a delivery platform rather than having to contingency plan for the constantly moving target which the various OS'es represent? And, that's the real problem with most OS'es today-- they are all basically the same. Sure, some are prettier, others more safe, but they all provide the basic same functions. In fact, what is more interesting to me is seeing how Apple had to actually reset OS expectations with the iPad. Let's be honest, the OS on iPad is way behind in terms of functionality. No true multi-tasking. The interface has been dumbed down considerably yet see how EASY they are to use. And Jobs knows that EASE OF USE translates into sales. The first Mac 128 cold booted in under 30 seconds. My Mac and Windows machines take many minutes. Don't get me started about how feature creep has ruined countless applications-- MS Word primary among them. I can get 99% of what I need done word processing-wise using the MacWrite like GDocs. Adding features on top of features on top of features is just confusing everyone. One thing about Chromebook-- EVERYONE knows instantly how to use it. Turn it on and it's just a browser. I don't care whether it's Linux, Debian, MacOS, Windows or your mothers cupcake under the hood-- it just works. So, if we focus on where the puck WILL be-- is it fair to say it's headed in the direction of HTML5 web apps? I dunno, but it is interesting to consider.... _______________________________________________ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode