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Where do things like all-Flash web apps fall? Are they web apps, since I use my browser to get to a web page that contains no more code than is needed to launch
by JimmyL 17y ago
Where do things like all-Flash web apps fall? Are they web apps, since I use my browser to get to a web page that contains no more code than is needed to launch the Flash movie? But what if I chose to download (or otherwise receive) the .fla file and launch it using Flash Player - someone could launch it this way without ever having Firefox installed.
Or consider Java Web Start applications - you click one link in a browser, which causes a helper to fire, some code to download, and an app to be launched? What are they?
- moe 17y agoWhat are they? The future. The extent to which we constrain ourselves to HTML/JS nowadays is borderline ridiculous. AIR exists and it works. It lets you build user interfaces on a much more powerful platform and these apps will run equally well inside a browser tab or a desktop window. The problem with AIR (and silverlight) is the vendor lockin, nobody likes to rely on proprietary technology. Free alternatives will emerge as we push the limits of HTML further.