 |
Search |
 |
|
|
Change of HeartPosted by editor on June 4, 2007 at 5:35 AM PDT
Google Gears and its Java-based alternatives So, one of the big announcements last week was Google Gears, which allows web applications to operate in an offline mode. It does this by installing a local database server (SQLite) and a browser extension that offers a JavaScript API to interact with the database. Because of its use of a browser extension, it is limited to a specific set of browsers and operating systems: currently Firefox and IE on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Presumably, the SQLite install would also require admin privileges. (fact check me on this, someone, please? Also check if Gears' Linux support is Intel-only? Thanks.) Surely, I can't be the only one thinking... maybe y'all could have done this in Java? Using an applet-embedded database like Derby / JavaDB would offer zero install hassles and not present any concerns about native-OS compatibility. Java would also be compatible with more browsers and OS'es on Day One than the native browser plug-in will probably ever be. And as noted in last week's feature article, applets can be used to maintain state for webapps, even surviving refreshes and page-closes. Setting aside the sometimes iffy nature of JavaScript-applet communication, this seems like a more compatible, lower-maintenance approach. So how did this option get missed? As your editor often asks, "was Java considered and found lacking, or never considered at all?" This seems like a huge missed opportunity for our favorite platform, especially considering that Sun and Google have a partnership. Google says "the company's long-term hope is that Google Gears can help the industry as a whole move toward a single standard for offline capabilities that all developers can use." My gut tells me that this arrangement has a "string, tape, and popsicle sticks" design smell that isn't going to hold up, but if that's true, maybe something else will succeed. After all, you can put an all-Java persistence solution to work today, and get to more browsers and operating systems. Fabrizio Giudici has a different question about Google Gears in today's Weblogs. In Provocation: with Google Gears, is it still a web app?, he writes: "Google Gears is a new piece of technology from Google which, in few words, extends your browser with a local database (SQLite) and a JavaScript API that allows applications to keep a persistent state in the client. With this enhancement, e.g. Google Mail can keep a local cache of mail items that can be accessed when you are disconnected. Good. But - thinking in extreme terms - is it still a web app?" Still on the topic of persistence, David Van Couvering is Looking for a few good datbase users. "I will be conducting a series of interviews with database users to help me understand what database tools and cool features we should be putting into the next release of NetBeans (and beyond). Want to help?" Finally, in Woodstox rocks Glassfish v2, Santiago Pericas-Geertsen recaps the integration of the XML parser into GlassFish. "This is a great example of how your opinion counts and how a community can work together to improve a product. We kept hearing from many of you about how good the Woodstox XML parser was, especially how well it performed. Your voice has been heard, Woodstox is now officially part of Glassfish and this is the story of how it happened." In Java Today, NetBeans.org and BlueJ.org are proud to announce the availability of NetBeans IDE 5.5.1 BlueJ Edition. The NetBeans IDE BlueJ Edition is targeted at teachers and students familiar with the popular BlueJ tool. The NetBeans BlueJ Edition helps you "make the jump" from BlueJ to a full-featured IDE, either when your projects have grown too big to fit comfortably into BlueJ, or when you want to use features such as code completion and drag-and-drop GUI building, which BlueJ doesn't directly support. Calling it "yet another hideous idea from the closures camp," Café Au Lait's Elliotte Rusty Harold dismisses Neal Gafter's thoughts about removing checked exceptions from Java in order to make closures easier to implement. In Voting for Checked Exceptions, he writes "can we take the idea of removing checked exceptions from the language off the table? They are far more important to developing reliable, comprehensible, robust code than closures ever could be." This year's JavaOne slogan was "Open Possibilities." In the interview Open Possibilities, Artima asks Sun's JCP Chair Onno Kluyt to tell us about new possibilities that some Java developers may find surprising. Specifically, Kluyt describes three Java technologies that allow developers to build new kinds of applications. This week's Spotlight is on the Blu-Dahlia project, a California-based users' group for developers of Blu-Ray Java applications, and applications for other GEM TV platforms, such as OCAP and MHP and GEM-IPTV. Like the nightclub in Raymond Chandler's 1946 movie, the Blu-Dahlia Java SIG is a place to exchange ideas and best practices among professionals. Blu-Dahlia intends to be an open group for the sharing of best practices in application development, including tools, techniques, frameworks, and shared code.
Windows-specific frustrations top today's Forums.
Meanwhile,
Finally, Current and upcoming Java Events :
Registered users can submit event listings for the java.net Events Page using our events submission form. All submissions go through an editorial review before being posted to the site. Archives and Subscriptions: This blog is delivered weekdays as the Java Today RSS feed. Also, once this page is no longer featured as the front page of java.net it will be archived along with other past issues in the java.net Archive. Google Gears and its Java-based alternatives »
Comments
Comments are listed in date ascending order (oldest first)
|
|
|
||
|
