Walden, I agree with you that ease of deployment and the ability to have
good control over client versions is extremely important. Couldn't most
of those concerns be mitigated by running an application server?
I have a couple of questions about your reasoning for using a web based
app as opposed to a thick client.
Walden Leverich wrote on 30/08/2007 18:21:37:
3) You don't need to worry about conflicts. In thick-client you need to
worry about each system having something that conflicts with your
application. Maybe it's the wrong version of Office? Or perhaps you're
missing MSSTDFMT.DLL (been there), or you need SP6 of the VB runtime,
but this machine only has SP5. That's ok, we can upgrade it to SP6...
see. Simple! What? That other application you run is not compatible with
SP6, it will only run with SP5? Um... Um... VMWare anyone? (Been there
too). In browser-apps if they have a browser we're set. Browser on XP?
Ok. Vista? Ok. Unbutu Linux? Ok. Redhat Linux? Ok. Aix? Ok. OSX? Ok. ...
Is writing cross-browser apps really that much easier than it was 5 years
ago when I had to wade into the morass of "does CSS property X work
properly in browser X"? My understanding from reading a bit on Javascript
programming recently is making your apps truly compatible with the 4 or so
major browsers is still somewhat restrictive in terms of what
functionality is available to you, and generally a royal pain.
6) The UI is more familiar. Like it or not, the web has imposed _some_
standards on how we craft UIs. Can we still do right mouse? Sure.
Drag/drop? Sure. But for the most part links are underlined, we click on
things to make something happen and we fill out data and submit it
around (again, familiar model). It's the same interface we all use on
Amazon and CNN. On the other hand, I've seen some enterprise
thick-client apps where you could click, right-click, Ctrl-click,
alt-click, ctrl-shift-click, etc.
I disagree. I think right-clicking is still pretty natural for most
people. I'd say that MS has a greater influence on UI "standards" than
web apps have. You still need to use an OS to access a web app in most
cases, and the majority of people still use Windows. Not only that, but
there are plenty of people in the non-techie crowd who don't spend very
much time on the web.
- Adam
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