Going native is Easier Now
One of the classic complaints about VisualWorks has been the emulated UI. I've gone back and forth on how relevant that is, but I'm starting to think that it's becoming less relevant all the time. Why? Have a look at this from O'Reilly Radar - it covers a raft of web technology coming downstream to the browser - simple video embedding, full canvas for graphics - you can "go native" in the browser, and have a powerful back end in Smalltalk, making it easier to write the business logic. It looks to me like the future is going to be browser based, with the most productive thing you can find for the far end. In that world, Smalltalk plays pretty well.
Technorati Tags: smalltalk, javascript, html5
Comments
No Suprise
[Runar Jordahl] May 28, 2009 3:59:03.641
No surprise there. Cincom has not seriously improved the ability to make desktop application in VisualWorks for a long time. I can understand your position, but for us that are using VisualWorks to create desktop applications, this is a serious problem.
Meanwhile, Microsoft has vastly improved their desktop UI framework by introducing WPF. What they decided was that the old desktop UI frameworks needed to be totally replaced.
I do not believe that “open” web technologies will be the only future of UIs. Mixed solutions like Silverlight (which builds on WPF) and FLEX will also have their share. These are technologies built from ground up with the aim of supporting applications, not documents. Many companies will favor these technologies instead of chasing the next, big invention that promise to make web applications as easy to use and develop as desktop apps.
separation of responsibilities?
[ Troy Brumley] May 28, 2009 5:51:39.839
Comment by Troy Brumley
@Runar, I think the whole RIA thing, which is what Silverlight is trying to do, requires more discipline on the part of developers. MVC matters. The ASP.NET crowd is crowing over this idea for the past couple of years, but I'm not sure how many people can really make the transition. I'm not sure how well 3-tier/n-tier architectures have caught on.
What do you think?