6 ms·

So is this like PhoneGap for desktops? it was about time

IanDrake 16y ago
Actually, check out Adobe Air (for ajax developers). Basically it's webkit as a desktop app and pretty mature. I've used it in the past, but I think Mozilla has a big opportunity here as Adobe has pretty much abandoned the web desktop aspect of AIR to focus on flash/flex for mobile. Also, Adobe removes some of the best parts of webkit like web workers and I recently found a giant performance bug in their javascript engine that only exists in AIR.
- mambodog 16y ago
  Appcelerator Titanium is another option in this category, and is focused on building applications using JS/web standards.
  - bni 16y ago
    yes, but if im stil up to date on that, it has its own gui frameworks that your app is tied to forever. Might aswell write the app in Cocoa or Win32 then. Correct me if Im wrong, can you deploy your client side web app as a desktop application without using the Titanium framework stuff?
    - IanDrake 16y ago
      I believe you're correct about the framework. I think Titanium apps are packaged with the framework statically "linked", instead of installed separately. The Titanium mobile API is basically JS bindings for Cocoa, but the desktop API is mostly OS agnostic. In my opinion, Titanium was smart to make one version for mobile and one for desktops. Adobe should have done the same.
- bni 16y ago
  Does Air still require a shared runtime component to be installed beforehand? We all know how well that worked with Java.
  - r00fus 16y ago
    http://www.adobe.com/products/air/runtime_distribution_faq.html http://www.adobe.com/products/air/runtime_distribution_faq.h... Looks like Air is similar to Java in that respect (or in my more cynical view, Visual Basic - but multiplatform).
  - jarin 16y ago
    Yes, but the install is relatively seamless (as long as you already have Flash installed) and only needs to be done once. The AIR update process (for both the runtime and the applications) is also pretty seamless as well.
  - IanDrake 16y ago
    You can now build MSIs for Windows and DMGs for Macs with AIR that will bootstrap the runtime. That said, I haven't used that option. Up until Craig's lawyers killed my app, I was using the flash installer that was seamless. Same sort of installation process can be seen on TweetDeck which uses AIR.

Actually, check out Adobe Air (for ajax developers). Basically it's webkit as a desktop app and pretty mature. I've used it in the past, but I think Mozilla has a big opportunity here as Adobe has pretty much abandoned the web desktop aspect of AIR to focus on flash/flex for mobile. Also, Adobe removes some of the best parts of webkit like web workers and I recently found a giant performance bug in their javascript engine that only exists in AIR.

mambodog 16y ago
Appcelerator Titanium is another option in this category, and is focused on building applications using JS/web standards.
- bni 16y ago
  yes, but if im stil up to date on that, it has its own gui frameworks that your app is tied to forever. Might aswell write the app in Cocoa or Win32 then. Correct me if Im wrong, can you deploy your client side web app as a desktop application without using the Titanium framework stuff?
  - IanDrake 16y ago
    I believe you're correct about the framework. I think Titanium apps are packaged with the framework statically "linked", instead of installed separately. The Titanium mobile API is basically JS bindings for Cocoa, but the desktop API is mostly OS agnostic. In my opinion, Titanium was smart to make one version for mobile and one for desktops. Adobe should have done the same.
bni 16y ago
Does Air still require a shared runtime component to be installed beforehand? We all know how well that worked with Java.
- r00fus 16y ago
  http://www.adobe.com/products/air/runtime_distribution_faq.html http://www.adobe.com/products/air/runtime_distribution_faq.h... Looks like Air is similar to Java in that respect (or in my more cynical view, Visual Basic - but multiplatform).
- jarin 16y ago
  Yes, but the install is relatively seamless (as long as you already have Flash installed) and only needs to be done once. The AIR update process (for both the runtime and the applications) is also pretty seamless as well.
- IanDrake 16y ago
  You can now build MSIs for Windows and DMGs for Macs with AIR that will bootstrap the runtime. That said, I haven't used that option. Up until Craig's lawyers killed my app, I was using the flash installer that was seamless. Same sort of installation process can be seen on TweetDeck which uses AIR.