[html5] Could HTML5 apps replace Desktop apps?

Mon Oct 15 23:41:43 PDT 2012

2012-10-16 2:43, Victor Martínez wrote:
> Lately I've been seeing a lot of hype (from Google and Mozilla mostly) 
> about how powerful HTML5 apps are getting, and I can certainly attest 
> to that. HTML5 apps are really gaining a lot of leverage. I currently 
> use Google Drive (formally Docs) for a lot of my school work, and I 
> can say it's pretty powerful. So I can really see a lot of web apps 
> taking over the Desktop apps. I see a lot advantages to doing this. 
> What do you guys think? Could web apps, the cloud, take over? Is the 
> take over already here?
There's a lot going on in the area of "HTML5 applications", but it is 
mostly tangential to what is called "HTML5" at W3C and "HTML Living 
Standard" at WHATWG. "HTML5 application" has become a common expression, 
but it has little to do with HTML5; instead, it refers to programming 
applications in JavaScript, with the intent of running them in browser 
engines. For this, you need at least a little piece of HTML and in 
practice CSS as well. But there is no specific need for a particular 
version of HTML.

What is called "HTML5" at W3C and "HTML Living Standard" at WHATWG 
contains many features that are application-oriented, aimed (among other 
things) making it easier to create "HTML5 applications". For example, 
application cache and localStorage. But useful as they may be, on 
supporting browsers, they are not necessary for "HTML5 applications".

-- 
Yucca, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/