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In that case "web application" is a misnomer. If the current state has no natural URL, it's not a legitimate part of the World-Wide Web. Instead the authors are
by prodigal_erik 16y ago
In that case "web application" is a misnomer. If the current state has no natural URL, it's not a legitimate part of the World-Wide Web. Instead the authors are tunneling a proprietary protocol over AJAX to carry opaque content to a single-purpose GUI app, just like all the terrible client/server apps from the 90s only slower.
- vannevar 16y agoIf the current state has no natural URL, it's not a legitimate part of the World-Wide Web. But most of the popular content accessible via the web now fits this description. Look at Google's own homepage, it's a complex Javascript application that's completely opaque. @bruceboughton is right, the problem isn't that people aren't respecting the WWW specification, it's that the specification is no longer adequate to describe what the Web has become.
- prodigal_erik 16y agoGoogle has competent web developers who practice progressive enhancement. Their search form and results have stable (even sensible) URLs and are perfectly usable without trusting their js.
- vannevar 16y agoSure the application has a URL. But once I load it, it constructs what I see on the page on the fly. I can turn Javascript off and load an alternate page, but if I leave it on I'm loading an application that's every bit as opaque as Flash.