On Mon, Jun 8, 2015 at 3:44 PM, Monnier, Gary <Gary.Monnier@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In my experience browsers also take some care and feeding. Personally, I categorize web browsers as thick clients (just look at the size of one's folder) with all the issues of any other thick client.
Modern Web browsers are extremely thick, that's true, but they don't
have the same issues as "any other thick client".
First, most devices that could conceivably run your application
already have a Web browser installed. That in itself is a huge
advantage for deployment.
Second, Web browsers are relatively independent of the underlying
hardware or operating system. Even differences between browsers are
often handled fairly well by modern advanced frameworks. (Not perfect
by any means, but usually not as bad as handling the differences
between Windows, Linux, OS X, Android, and iOS.) In broad strokes, it
could be argued that Java thick clients are similarly cross-platform.
.NET applications are less cross-platform, and native binary apps are
of course not cross-platform at all.
These two are pretty big points in favor of developing for the
browser. Scott also mentioned that browsers tend to have less access
to the local system, which could be an advantage. I think other thick
clients are not without their own advantages as well, but I would not
lump them in with browser-based apps.
John Y.
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