2 ms·

We're doing air gapped development (and even single-machine deployments) with web tech by just also including a server component with the client or on the air g

We're doing air gapped development (and even single-machine deployments) with web tech by just also including a server component with the client or on the air gapped network. There is one instance where we still use machine control / HMI non-web, and that's when there is no TCP/IP stack available. Doesn't happen that often anymore.

pjmlp 5y ago
Sure, Electron is also a thing, and even I was on a project where we made use of Web widgets in 2000. It seldom comes up though.
- oneplane 5y ago
  I'm not talking about faking a web app, just use a normal webbrowser and point it to the internal server. It's what we do in industrial automation as well (of course with watchdogs so it doesn't end up displaying a dead page if windows is used and the HTTP channel shits itself). We did this with meta-refresh and progressive loading (https://blog.codinghorror.com/the-lost-art-of-progressive-html-rendering/ https://blog.codinghorror.com/the-lost-art-of-progressive-ht...) earlier on as well. Benefit is that you get that client-server model without having to do all that much special for the client side, works on any client that has a working browser (even ancient IE5/Netscape4 rendering engines), even embedded systems and weird stuff like NetFront and Opera Mini Java (which runs nearly everywhere). A lot of actions are essentially reading for status and anomalies, and every now and when adjust or control things (not real-time actuator control like a robotic arm or something like that, that requires hard realtime loops for us), anything bigger than that you'd do on a full desktop style system anyway and you can just use a modern web app in the browser for that. Those then also work on tablets (wallmounts! yay!), PDAs (well mobile phones without modems today) and other devices.

2 ms·

We're doing air gapped development (and even single-machine deployments) with web tech by just also including a server component with the client or on the air g

by oneplane 5y ago

pjmlp 5y ago
Sure, Electron is also a thing, and even I was on a project where we made use of Web widgets in 2000. It seldom comes up though.
- oneplane 5y ago
  I'm not talking about faking a web app, just use a normal webbrowser and point it to the internal server. It's what we do in industrial automation as well (of course with watchdogs so it doesn't end up displaying a dead page if windows is used and the HTTP channel shits itself). We did this with meta-refresh and progressive loading (https://blog.codinghorror.com/the-lost-art-of-progressive-html-rendering/ https://blog.codinghorror.com/the-lost-art-of-progressive-ht...) earlier on as well. Benefit is that you get that client-server model without having to do all that much special for the client side, works on any client that has a working browser (even ancient IE5/Netscape4 rendering engines), even embedded systems and weird stuff like NetFront and Opera Mini Java (which runs nearly everywhere). A lot of actions are essentially reading for status and anomalies, and every now and when adjust or control things (not real-time actuator control like a robotic arm or something like that, that requires hard realtime loops for us), anything bigger than that you'd do on a full desktop style system anyway and you can just use a modern web app in the browser for that. Those then also work on tablets (wallmounts! yay!), PDAs (well mobile phones without modems today) and other devices.