From: James Toomey <jamesvtoomey@...>
Date: 2005-04-14T04:24:38+09:00
Subject: What's beyond Rails?

Somewhat off-topic rant: This isn't so much a dig at Rails but a
critique of HTML in general. I've done web development with PHP,
ColdFusion, and ASP, and being able to use Ruby in doing so (especially
with Rails' well-designed database interactivity) is certainly a
welcome change. However, the general model is still the same, in terms
of using code to write out HTML to an essentially-static page. The HTML
interface is still such a far cry from the things you can do with a
rich client. For ordering airline tickets on Travelocity or books on
Amazon, the web works great, but imagine trying to emulate Adobe
Photoshop via a web browser, or a spreadsheet like Excel.
It seems to me that there needs to be a next-generation of HTML that
enables web apps to truly be like rich client apps, and
I don't think the solution needs to be a faster connection that sucks
down the entire application in the form of massive Java applets every
time I want to use the program. Perhaps the solution does need to be a
"computer" that's designed from the ground up as a web-enabled dumb
terminal, but that has forms and controls optimized so that they
require minimal data inflow to tell them what to do.
To me, this would make the web incredibly more useful (and would put
serious potential into the claim that Google wants to become a web
operating system). If I've purchased Adobe Photoshop (or rented it, as
I'm sure will be the more likely model), instead of loading it on every
computer I use, why can't I get to Photoshop at any computer in the
world merely by logging into my personal website and getting access to
every software program I own or am renting? Why would it need to be
reloaded at every computer? This is particularly annoying when you're
visiting a friend in another city for a weekend, and jump onto his
computer to check email or show him how to do something useful, and
think, "I wish I had App X loaded on here right now."
I was disappointed to see Google Suggest being touted as innovative; it
seems to indicate that Google's going to stay within the existing web
realm and not try anything really new (as I read on the web somewhere,
"for a web app, Google Suggest is neat; for a desktop app, it's so
1995"). For all of Google's deep pockets and reputation as innovative,
I expected to see them partner up with a hardware manufacturer and try
something dramatically different.