4 ms·

Honestly I don't understand the craze of wanting to put EVERYTHING in a browser. I'm sure in many cases (for game development at least) it's easier to do it nat

by roddux 11y ago

Honestly I don't understand the craze of wanting to put EVERYTHING in a browser. I'm sure in many cases (for game development at least) it's easier to do it native, not to mention a tonne faster and less resource-intensive. Heck, I'd even go so far as to venture that Java webapps run better than WebGL+JS. Perhaps I'm just biased/bitter because the open source radeon driver does nothing good by way of 3D acceleration.

oldmanjay 11y ago
I hope your hobbies meet the arbitrary usefulness requirements of the dismissal squad.
sleepychu 11y ago
If your game is in the browser then I run it in a sandbox which I trust (if you're using native web technologies as opposed to a java 'webapp'). I don't need any storage on my local machine and when you make a change I just 'update' by refreshing my page.
- Klathmon 11y ago
  And it doesn't matter if i'm running it on a phone, tv, desktop, laptop, x86, ARM, windows, linux, mac, etc... It removes all of those from the equation, web tech will be available on most platforms i want to use, so i'm free to choose the best for what i want without worrying if a ton of my software is supported.
  - ascagnel_ 11y ago
    Except all of those have vastly different methods of interacting with your web app. A responsive website can handle the more similar methods of interaction that a desktop, laptop, and mobile devices rely on with slight tweaks to account for a fingertip vs a mouse, but trying to run a similar application on a TV will be an exercise in user frustration.
    - Klathmon 11y ago
      I'm not saying you get magical interaction for free, but i've written a toy web app that works fine on my tv. The arrow buttons on the remote act as up/down/left/right and the "OK" button acts as enter. It actually ended up needing very little in the way of custom code to work, but like i said this was a pretty small toy app. Still, if you want an example of a real "web app" that runs on all of those platforms, just look at netflix.
      - kenbellows 11y ago
        Though in fairness, Netflix hasn't historically bee based on native web tech; it used to be Microsoft Silverlight for web browsers (I think they've gone/are going HTML5 now), and even now it's native apps for mobile devices/smart tvs/etc.
    - AJ007 11y ago
      Consistent rendering of a webpage's contents across devices are not necessarily interlinked or dependent with the input methods.
flohofwoe 11y ago
It's not about the technology but about the simple distribution model. I upload a WebGL demo to github-pages, and publish the URL. I don't have to worry about code-signing, app-review-process, and don't need to wait days or weeks until the code is 'up'. For iOS this is the only way to get simple demos out. Users only need to know a URL, they don't need to download or install stuff, they don't need to find the executable after installing, there are no scare-dialogs about installing unsafe executables, no virus scanner warnings, etc...
d0m 11y ago
>> Honestly I don't understand the craze of wanting to put EVERYTHING in a browser. Web is an amazing distribution channel. The whole world is a click away from using whatever you build. Think about how technology distribution evolved in the last few years.. We used to buy Encarta/encyclopedia from a retailer. Now, with the web, you get the whole encarta (and more) with a click.
DonHopkins 11y ago
"Java webapps run better than WebGL+JS"??! Seriously, I just wasted an hour trying to get Hetzner's KVM java web app to run on my Mac, because after having a couple of tickets closed and finally calling support directly, I was told firmly that the applet was from a third party vendor over whom they had no control, there was no other alternative, and they had no plans to support a better way to access the KVM. I had to use Safari instead of Chrome, then CAREFULLY upgrade Java making sure Oracle didn't trick me into installing any toolbars, then find the Java control panel in the system preferences, which was just too awesome to be constrained by the limited confines of the Mac system preferences windows, so I had to read about how "The Java Control Panel opens in a separate window" because obviously it is so much more important than all other control panels, so I then pressed the "Reopen the Java Control Panel" button, which did what it promised after a half second pause, then I had to click around to the Security tab to find the Exception Site List, press the "Edit Site List..." button to bring up the "Exception Site List" dialog in all its glory and splendor, then press the "Add" button, then type an https url with a numeric ip address and port number into the field, then click a long series of "OK" buttons window close icons, then go back to the web browser, refresh the page, click through another series of threatening warning dialogs, to finally get a bottom of the barrel KVM applet. And it was convinced I was using a German keyboard, so I couldn't find the punctuation characters I needed to type shell commands, and the Z and Y keys were switched. I had to press and shift-press every key to make a little table of substitutions, and then punch each character in carefully instead of touch typing. One new thing I found during my Java adventure: the system Java control panel has an "Advanced" tab, and if you scroll way down to the bottom, there is a checkbox labeled "Suppress sponsor offers when installing or updating Java". It was un-checked by default of course. I suspect it's not actually hooked up, it's just a placebo, and exists to make me lower my guard next time I install a Java update. I'm not falling for it.
- doodpants 11y ago
  I always install Java from here [1], and it doesn't include any sponsor offers. Or maybe it's because I install the JDK rather than the plain JRE. [1]http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/inde...
jnoland 11y ago
It really is about the ease of distribution with the web and the ease of development. Building production ready Java can be a nightmare. Not everything should be on the web but I am excited by this new library.

by roddux 11y ago

oldmanjay 11y ago

I hope your hobbies meet the arbitrary usefulness requirements of the dismissal squad.

sleepychu 11y ago

If your game is in the browser then I run it in a sandbox which I trust (if you're using native web technologies as opposed to a java 'webapp'). I don't need any storage on my local machine and when you make a change I just 'update' by refreshing my page.

Klathmon 11y ago
And it doesn't matter if i'm running it on a phone, tv, desktop, laptop, x86, ARM, windows, linux, mac, etc... It removes all of those from the equation, web tech will be available on most platforms i want to use, so i'm free to choose the best for what i want without worrying if a ton of my software is supported.
- ascagnel_ 11y ago
  Except all of those have vastly different methods of interacting with your web app. A responsive website can handle the more similar methods of interaction that a desktop, laptop, and mobile devices rely on with slight tweaks to account for a fingertip vs a mouse, but trying to run a similar application on a TV will be an exercise in user frustration.
  - Klathmon 11y ago
    I'm not saying you get magical interaction for free, but i've written a toy web app that works fine on my tv. The arrow buttons on the remote act as up/down/left/right and the "OK" button acts as enter. It actually ended up needing very little in the way of custom code to work, but like i said this was a pretty small toy app. Still, if you want an example of a real "web app" that runs on all of those platforms, just look at netflix.
    - kenbellows 11y ago
      Though in fairness, Netflix hasn't historically bee based on native web tech; it used to be Microsoft Silverlight for web browsers (I think they've gone/are going HTML5 now), and even now it's native apps for mobile devices/smart tvs/etc.
  - AJ007 11y ago
    Consistent rendering of a webpage's contents across devices are not necessarily interlinked or dependent with the input methods.

flohofwoe 11y ago

It's not about the technology but about the simple distribution model. I upload a WebGL demo to github-pages, and publish the URL. I don't have to worry about code-signing, app-review-process, and don't need to wait days or weeks until the code is 'up'. For iOS this is the only way to get simple demos out. Users only need to know a URL, they don't need to download or install stuff, they don't need to find the executable after installing, there are no scare-dialogs about installing unsafe executables, no virus scanner warnings, etc...

d0m 11y ago

>> Honestly I don't understand the craze of wanting to put EVERYTHING in a browser. Web is an amazing distribution channel. The whole world is a click away from using whatever you build. Think about how technology distribution evolved in the last few years.. We used to buy Encarta/encyclopedia from a retailer. Now, with the web, you get the whole encarta (and more) with a click.

DonHopkins 11y ago

"Java webapps run better than WebGL+JS"??! Seriously, I just wasted an hour trying to get Hetzner's KVM java web app to run on my Mac, because after having a couple of tickets closed and finally calling support directly, I was told firmly that the applet was from a third party vendor over whom they had no control, there was no other alternative, and they had no plans to support a better way to access the KVM. I had to use Safari instead of Chrome, then CAREFULLY upgrade Java making sure Oracle didn't trick me into installing any toolbars, then find the Java control panel in the system preferences, which was just too awesome to be constrained by the limited confines of the Mac system preferences windows, so I had to read about how "The Java Control Panel opens in a separate window" because obviously it is so much more important than all other control panels, so I then pressed the "Reopen the Java Control Panel" button, which did what it promised after a half second pause, then I had to click around to the Security tab to find the Exception Site List, press the "Edit Site List..." button to bring up the "Exception Site List" dialog in all its glory and splendor, then press the "Add" button, then type an https url with a numeric ip address and port number into the field, then click a long series of "OK" buttons window close icons, then go back to the web browser, refresh the page, click through another series of threatening warning dialogs, to finally get a bottom of the barrel KVM applet. And it was convinced I was using a German keyboard, so I couldn't find the punctuation characters I needed to type shell commands, and the Z and Y keys were switched. I had to press and shift-press every key to make a little table of substitutions, and then punch each character in carefully instead of touch typing. One new thing I found during my Java adventure: the system Java control panel has an "Advanced" tab, and if you scroll way down to the bottom, there is a checkbox labeled "Suppress sponsor offers when installing or updating Java". It was un-checked by default of course. I suspect it's not actually hooked up, it's just a placebo, and exists to make me lower my guard next time I install a Java update. I'm not falling for it.

doodpants 11y ago
I always install Java from here [1], and it doesn't include any sponsor offers. Or maybe it's because I install the JDK rather than the plain JRE. [1]http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/inde...

jnoland 11y ago

It really is about the ease of distribution with the web and the ease of development. Building production ready Java can be a nightmare. Not everything should be on the web but I am excited by this new library.