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This guy gets it. The browser, html/css/js, is the most ubiquitous common runtime that has ever existed. A lot of services have an iPhone app, an android app,
by thatthatis 13y ago
This guy gets it.
The browser, html/css/js, is the most ubiquitous common runtime that has ever existed.
A lot of services have an iPhone app, an android app, and sometimes even a desktop program. But if you have a website, you get all of those platforms at once.
Sure you have to do things differently, usually more slowly, but you can do whatever you do on any device with a browser.
- millstone 13y agoIt's not the case that a web app is capable of doing "whatever you do on any device." The browser exposes a tiny fraction of the actual device capabilities. Browsers are themselves native apps, and therefore web apps will always be less capable than native apps, because web apps are subject to the one-two punch of the limitations imposed by native apps and the browser.
- thatthatis 13y agoIm not sure your contention that browsers will always be hamstrung is true, time will tell, but proposals for HTML spec camera integration, gps integration, etc are alive and well. To the point of paying the fee of app in app, you're right that there will always be a penalty. But "will browser apps ever run as fast as native" is not really the right question. The right question is "will browser apps ever be able to run fast enough." Finally, a clarifying point. When i said "do whatever you do" I meant that a website does the same thing in every browser, not that websites currently can do the same thing as native apps.