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Funny you should mention >video editors. DAWs. Console-y video games. Compilers. Linkers. Operating systems. The overwhelming majority of mobile apps. Dental i

Funny you should mention >video editors. DAWs. Console-y video games. Compilers. Linkers. Operating systems. The overwhelming majority of mobile apps. Dental imaging systems. Robot assisted surgery systems. CNC controllers. Scientific data analysis. GPT-N. Because many of those already offer web interfaces, or can be done online >get your head out of the sand and grasp the scope of what software actually is and does.

jrumbut 4y ago
Interestingly, your experience is a stronger counterpoint to the article than the OP's. The author says that every software domain that gets touched by the web browser gets swallowed by it. Perhaps it is early days and all compilers will be web based soon (makes me think of that dystopian horror story "The Right to Read"), but browsers have touched every aspect of the compilation process and besides JS I would say the majority of compilers are not online.
- paulgb 4y ago
  The point is not so much that the browser itself swallows the software, as that browsers become the standard bearer for those domains. For a compiler-related example, Rust's cargo build tool (the interface that most developers use to the rustc compiler) interoperates with other tools by outputting JSON: https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/external-tools.html https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/external-tools.htm... Another example that's more of a standard is the Language Server Protocol, which is JSON over HTTP even though it doesn't (always) touch a browser: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_Server_Protocol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_Server_Protocol
  - PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago
    "outputting JSON" does not in my opinion make something "web software". In these very comment threads, we've seen proposals for stuff like df -h --json making it abundantly clear that JSON is a data format, not a technology inevitably associated with browsers or even just HTTP.
- fathyb 4y ago
  WebAssembly is a sort of web-based compiler. Compiling WebAssembly to x86 isn't that much different from compiling LLVM's IR to x86. And nowadays, you can interop WebAssembly with most modern languages, making it a target of choice for libraries with cross-platform/language needs.
PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago
a web interface to a fully-non-browser implemented system is not in my opinion evidence that "all software is web software now".

jrumbut 4y ago

Interestingly, your experience is a stronger counterpoint to the article than the OP's. The author says that every software domain that gets touched by the web browser gets swallowed by it. Perhaps it is early days and all compilers will be web based soon (makes me think of that dystopian horror story "The Right to Read"), but browsers have touched every aspect of the compilation process and besides JS I would say the majority of compilers are not online.

paulgb 4y ago
The point is not so much that the browser itself swallows the software, as that browsers become the standard bearer for those domains. For a compiler-related example, Rust's cargo build tool (the interface that most developers use to the rustc compiler) interoperates with other tools by outputting JSON: https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/external-tools.html https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/external-tools.htm... Another example that's more of a standard is the Language Server Protocol, which is JSON over HTTP even though it doesn't (always) touch a browser: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_Server_Protocol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_Server_Protocol
- PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago
  "outputting JSON" does not in my opinion make something "web software". In these very comment threads, we've seen proposals for stuff like df -h --json making it abundantly clear that JSON is a data format, not a technology inevitably associated with browsers or even just HTTP.
fathyb 4y ago
WebAssembly is a sort of web-based compiler. Compiling WebAssembly to x86 isn't that much different from compiling LLVM's IR to x86. And nowadays, you can interop WebAssembly with most modern languages, making it a target of choice for libraries with cross-platform/language needs.

PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago

a web interface to a fully-non-browser implemented system is not in my opinion evidence that "all software is web software now".