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The difference is, I can give a URL to anybody and expect my app to work on their phone, tablet or laptop, without installation, within a matter of seconds. The

The difference is, I can give a URL to anybody and expect my app to work on their phone, tablet or laptop, without installation, within a matter of seconds. Their data stored online somewhere means that their devices are always synced, and it doesn't matter from where they use the application.

tolmasky 13y ago
We'll see. In a lot of ways that was already the case with the web. People seem to ignore that email was, and remains, more or less this very ubiquitous web app "dream". Even 10 years ago I could log into hotmail from any computer on any browser, my mail was always "synced" (since I was always more or less directly manipulating the server), and I could see my mail on my phone way before the smartphone revolution. But it remains to be seen whether these technologies will actually make that possible for a wider array of applications. That is to say, is email just a fluke because it happens to have very simple constraints? The problem of saying "once you can easily write an app you can hit with a URL you get all this for free everywhere!" is that it ignores the "pesky details" of data conflicts and fundamental differences in platforms. Just because my tablet or phone can hit the Photoshop web app URL doesn't mean that app that was designed for a desktop is going to be at all usable on my tablet or phone. No amount of pointer events or reactive layout will fix the problem of sometimes (often? rarely? who knows) needing a truly differently well thought out design for these very different platforms. Is the problem with getting complex apps like these missing "frameworks" or just the leg work of actually rethinking what it means to edit a photo on a tablet vs a desktop. Time will tell I suppose. Regarding data conflicts, the second you give people the perception that there data is just magically going to always sync and be there when they need it you are going to run into the very real abuse of multiple edits that need to be conflict resolved and the fact you designed your app for a theoretical world where you always have internet when that really isn't the case yet. All that being said, I agree this is some approximation of the model we will be using some day when we "figure this out".

tolmasky 13y ago

We'll see. In a lot of ways that was already the case with the web. People seem to ignore that email was, and remains, more or less this very ubiquitous web app "dream". Even 10 years ago I could log into hotmail from any computer on any browser, my mail was always "synced" (since I was always more or less directly manipulating the server), and I could see my mail on my phone way before the smartphone revolution. But it remains to be seen whether these technologies will actually make that possible for a wider array of applications. That is to say, is email just a fluke because it happens to have very simple constraints? The problem of saying "once you can easily write an app you can hit with a URL you get all this for free everywhere!" is that it ignores the "pesky details" of data conflicts and fundamental differences in platforms. Just because my tablet or phone can hit the Photoshop web app URL doesn't mean that app that was designed for a desktop is going to be at all usable on my tablet or phone. No amount of pointer events or reactive layout will fix the problem of sometimes (often? rarely? who knows) needing a truly differently well thought out design for these very different platforms. Is the problem with getting complex apps like these missing "frameworks" or just the leg work of actually rethinking what it means to edit a photo on a tablet vs a desktop. Time will tell I suppose. Regarding data conflicts, the second you give people the perception that there data is just magically going to always sync and be there when they need it you are going to run into the very real abuse of multiple edits that need to be conflict resolved and the fact you designed your app for a theoretical world where you always have internet when that really isn't the case yet. All that being said, I agree this is some approximation of the model we will be using some day when we "figure this out".