[whatwg] Why not JavaScript?

[Ian Bicking]

Peter-Paul Koch wrote:
> I'm confused by the paper's mention of eBay and Amazon as examples of 
> web applications. To me, these are not applications but web sites, and 
> they can function without JavaScript (I'm not saying they do, I'm just 
> saying they can). 

It's an aside, but this may be the source of some confusion in this 
group.  I think people are coming up with two separate ideas of what a 
web application is: one thinks of it as a server-based application with 
a web frontend (like Amazon), another thinks of it as a whole new 
platform for client-based applications, that do not necessarily have a 
controlling server.  I think this is especially true when people think 
of this in terms of competing with XAML or other rich client systems.

My impression is that WHAT is intended to address the more traditional 
server-based applications, allowing for richer web interfaces.  Perhaps 
it would be helpful if there was some clarification on the scope of 
WHAT, specifically what is intended by the term "web application."

--
Ian Bicking  |  ianb at colorstudy.com  |  http://blog.ianbicking.org