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October 19, 2007
Java evolution
Java evolution: CNET's Stephen Shankland has a good wrapup of recent Java changes here. The hot headline talks about the mobile Java Micro Edition eventually "going away", with an integrated codebase across device form-factors... in SWF, Adobe has been doing long-term work on reconciling the mobile and desktop capabilities, but it's a tough job, considering that the larger machines can just plain do more. But there's also acknowledgment in this article that Java ME has different implementations on different brands and models of pocket devices, a failing which Flash Lite fortunately does not suffer. There's info on Java 6 Update N, which apparently speeds Java startup in webpages by slowing computer startup in general (not sure how I feel about that!), as well as another attempt to explain the larger "JavaFX" plan. For UI components they're going to OS-neutral chrome... Firefox is apparently moving the other way, to OS-native chrome... I like how AIR gives the creator the choice of either neutral or native interface appearance. Speaking of AIR, Gosling is quoted as calling it "a petri dish for viruses", which I hope he'll qualify in his own weblog (if he has one)... desktop access to the local file system for trusted applications is definitely a different situation than using a single browser application to visit any stranger in the world, but that phrasing sounds a little strong all on its own like that. Anyway, it's a good article, worth a read if you're keeping up on the various technology offerings.
And yes, I'm still on sabbatical, but with this Nokia N800 Internet Tablet and foldable Bluetooth keyboard, it's like I have the world in my pocket, it's great.
But HTML sucks. It's far more fragmented than JavaME is. I just had to rewrite this entry because the (presumably ancient) Moveable Type installation on the (definitely ancient) weblogs.macromedia.com server insists on trying to reload the page whenever I change the display in the N800's Opera browser.
Sites like TechCrunch never finish loading all their third-party ads and widgets... sites like ZDNet would probably act the same, if that domain ever came up here in China at all... sites like Read/Write Web can't even display because of CSS implementation differences.
Even when a site comes up, it may act unfriendly on unexpected devices. The N800 is 800 pixels wide in a four-inch display... high resolution. If type is small you have to zoom, and if you have to zoom you have to scroll. Some browsers can reflow after text resizes, but it's not a core function of common HTML.
Imagine if highways only supported certain brands of tires, and if you had the wrong model of an accepted brand then turning off at the Philly exit dropped you off in Podunk... if automobiles were as fragmented as browsers are today, then we'd still be scraping horse manure off city streets with a shovel.
Enough of that, the article's worth a read. See ya!
Posted by JohnDowdell at October 19, 2007 05:32 PM
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