N
nuklea
Face it, every day there is another framework coming out for web
application contruction. We developers all know that all of them are
not easy to learn. Each new framework be it struts, tiles, ajax, flex,
and all those variants are one way or another introduced another
concept. Their intentions are to make web application easier to
maintain but in reality a huge development effort introduced at all of
the application lifecycle. We know that web application is not meant to
be user friendly. Web application or application based on browser is
not meant to be user friendly because the browsers are not meant to
support complex user interface. Web application is for wider and
broader audiences. That is all about it. Why then developers are still
hacking their life away trying to make web application have rich user
interface? Is it because they are having nothing better to do ? On the
contrary, it is because they are driven by the users or business that
have no faintest idea about the browser limitation. It is time the
developer or system designer to tell the user that to truely attain
rich user interface they have to dump the browsers. It is time to go to
Swing or SWT based application. Switching to Swing or SWT will save
business lots of money in the contruction, maintain and support. Most
mission critical applications within the enterprise are not meant to be
used outside the company anyway and why build it like that?
I have worked on a project that a client want to turn a Swing
application to be a web application just for one user who happened to
be worked mostly from home. After a brief consultation with the client
it was concluded that it was a bad idea. The rich user interface has to
be watered down, the web server, application server, security
ramification, not mentioning hardwares and network usages, and all
those stuffs that come with web application package. The development
cost can easily double or triple the cost of building a Swing or SWT
based application. It is time to stop building complexity into a web
application that is not meant to be.
application contruction. We developers all know that all of them are
not easy to learn. Each new framework be it struts, tiles, ajax, flex,
and all those variants are one way or another introduced another
concept. Their intentions are to make web application easier to
maintain but in reality a huge development effort introduced at all of
the application lifecycle. We know that web application is not meant to
be user friendly. Web application or application based on browser is
not meant to be user friendly because the browsers are not meant to
support complex user interface. Web application is for wider and
broader audiences. That is all about it. Why then developers are still
hacking their life away trying to make web application have rich user
interface? Is it because they are having nothing better to do ? On the
contrary, it is because they are driven by the users or business that
have no faintest idea about the browser limitation. It is time the
developer or system designer to tell the user that to truely attain
rich user interface they have to dump the browsers. It is time to go to
Swing or SWT based application. Switching to Swing or SWT will save
business lots of money in the contruction, maintain and support. Most
mission critical applications within the enterprise are not meant to be
used outside the company anyway and why build it like that?
I have worked on a project that a client want to turn a Swing
application to be a web application just for one user who happened to
be worked mostly from home. After a brief consultation with the client
it was concluded that it was a bad idea. The rich user interface has to
be watered down, the web server, application server, security
ramification, not mentioning hardwares and network usages, and all
those stuffs that come with web application package. The development
cost can easily double or triple the cost of building a Swing or SWT
based application. It is time to stop building complexity into a web
application that is not meant to be.