Folks, this is not what AJAX is supposed to be used for. It is a buzzword and Google's favorite tool for developing interactive web pages, but this does not mean it should be used to create complex applications whose development would be better suited by C, C++, or Java.
Doing things this big in AJAX is a big ugly hack. As for the future of word processing and word processing applications, What ever happened to the UNIX mindset? Lots of small utilities that do one thing very well, combined in complex ways, give you all the complex behavior and performance you need. In addition, they exist within the highly standardized (and therefore portable) frameworks of POSIX and the C Library.
My idea for the future of word processing: a powerful typesetting engine like LaTeX but much less convoluted. Documents would be written in XML. This sounds like HTML, but imagine a markup for documents that is rendered with utter precision (i.e. you can be 100% confident of how the final production will appear) and can be output onto various paper sizes rather than the sizeless web browser window. To further refine: something as precise as CAD, but meant for text, and easy to type in XML. For those that need a WYSIWYG interface to word processing, that might be a separate application that runs on the same engine.
And yes, I think it should run natively on your computer. Is this such a crime? As long as there are standards and specifications that are strictly adhered to, developing native applications does not mean they will be unportable or even a pain in the neck. Look at *nix and open source applications that can be compiled and run on almost every POSIX platform.
Introducing the PowerMac G1, starting at $2999. The world's most advanced processor, underclocked to amazing speeds.
Advanced architecture: with extra inefficiency, our processors can do an entire FLOP! That's right, a floating point operation!
Select from three blazingly slow models: 9 Mhz, 2Khz, or the world's most advanced desktop featuring dual 0.01Hz underclocked 2.7Ghz processors.
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18ms for the same roads that take me 20 miles to drive.
20 miles in 18ms (4 million mph) is illegal in the US.
Folks, this is not what AJAX is supposed to be used for. It is a buzzword and Google's favorite tool for developing interactive web pages, but this does not mean it should be used to create complex applications whose development would be better suited by C, C++, or Java.
Doing things this big in AJAX is a big ugly hack. As for the future of word processing and word processing applications, What ever happened to the UNIX mindset? Lots of small utilities that do one thing very well, combined in complex ways, give you all the complex behavior and performance you need. In addition, they exist within the highly standardized (and therefore portable) frameworks of POSIX and the C Library.
My idea for the future of word processing: a powerful typesetting engine like LaTeX but much less convoluted. Documents would be written in XML. This sounds like HTML, but imagine a markup for documents that is rendered with utter precision (i.e. you can be 100% confident of how the final production will appear) and can be output onto various paper sizes rather than the sizeless web browser window. To further refine: something as precise as CAD, but meant for text, and easy to type in XML. For those that need a WYSIWYG interface to word processing, that might be a separate application that runs on the same engine.
And yes, I think it should run natively on your computer. Is this such a crime? As long as there are standards and specifications that are strictly adhered to, developing native applications does not mean they will be unportable or even a pain in the neck. Look at *nix and open source applications that can be compiled and run on almost every POSIX platform.
Why the Wiki[pms]?
Windows: Ugly, boring, and uninspired.
Introducing the PowerMac G1, starting at $2999. The world's most advanced processor, underclocked to amazing speeds. Advanced architecture: with extra inefficiency, our processors can do an entire FLOP! That's right, a floating point operation! Select from three blazingly slow models: 9 Mhz, 2Khz, or the world's most advanced desktop featuring dual 0.01Hz underclocked 2.7Ghz processors.