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Brad Neuberg, Google Gears, and the Future of the Web
Linux.com has an interesting look at Google Gears and one of its leading evangelists, Brad Neuberg. "For Neuberg -- as for most developers -- the idea of expanding the Web's capabilities is intriguing in itself. But both inside and outside Google, his argument is that there's more at stake than just a particular piece of technology. In fact, he does not even seem particularly concerned whether Gears or some rival project takes on the role he envisions. What matters, he says, is that finding a solution to the problems of the Web is essential not only to the continued evolution of the Web, but also to its continued freedom. "
first, a few observations I very much agree with:
1) even with HTML-5 and Ajax, HTTP is still not an ideal protocol for delivering applications
2) by now, web browsers has got huge momentum
reckoning with those two facts-of-life, new frameworks are being developed to solve the online vs. offline and other dilemmas (GWT, Gears, OpenLaszlo, Silverlight, Air, etc)
Now, I would like to add one more (OSS) project to this growing list:
Dr.i.n.e. - project:
http://code.google.com/p/drine/
Based on the ideas of Wine project, this one uses java+xml APIs of Google's Android to give developers a single framework for developing mobile/web/desktop-convergent applications.
Basically, every line of java code that you write gets automatically "ported" to the web, desktop and also to Android phones, without requiring source code modifications/branching. It's a mammoth undertaking, but I believe in it (so far has been my "labour of live"). I also see that project needs some initial publicity to get off the ground...
You can check out Dr.i.n.e. project's concepts and tech. overview here:
http://www.soften.ktu.lt/~alex/drp/
cheers,
Aleksandras G.