Wanted: Awesome HTML5 app ports for Firefox OS and the Open Web

https://hacks.mozilla.org/2014/02/firefox-apps-programs-2014/

by bpierre • 12 years ago

34 15 12 years ago

hacks.mozilla.org

CmonDev• 12 years ago

If the Web is Open can I use my favourite language - C# in mainstream browsers without transpiling?

Touche3• 12 years ago

Even on Windows your C# "transpiles" to CIL.

_random_• 12 years ago

But the performance doesn't degrade quite as much.

dave809• 12 years ago

something being open doesn't imply it has every imaginable feature

Pacabel2• 12 years ago

But "open" does imply having more than just one realistic choice, or at least the ability to realistically create more choice if it isn't already present.

Right now, JavaScript is basically the only option in practice, and getting additional languages supported by the major browsers does not seem possible. I don't consider that "open" at all.

sdegutis• 12 years ago

Browsers are supposed to be the new "platform" of the future. But their source code is so gigantic and inaccessible. A regular dev can't just pop in and help out, they have to learn a ton about internal browser infrastructure that they don't really deal with, and the learning curve is very steep. Contrast this with Linux, where most of us know the command line and can create/edit command line utilities much more easily.

pcwalton• 12 years ago

To be fair, the Linux kernel is similarly opaque (although I agree that browser engines should make more of an effort to be clean and easy to understand—something we're working on with Servo!)

I think the right analogues to userspace utilities are something like Angular or jQuery, which are much easier to understand than the browser "kernel".

Touche3• 12 years ago

It's significantly easier for someone (an outsider) to build the Linux kernel for the first time than any of the OS browsers.

georgemcbay• 12 years ago

Well, the same is mostly true of traditional operating systems.

On the other hand, traditional operating systems support a myriad of local development options on top of them, whereas with browsers you're, at some level, using HTML/CSS for display and JavaScript for logic. Both of which I still find to be unfortunate despite how far they've evolved.

_jwilde• 12 years ago

This is absolutely an important issue. Brian Bondy from Mozilla's platform engineering team put together an awesome little website called Code Firefox (http://codefirefox.com/) with a series of 1-minute videos that teach you everything you need to know to get started. :D

camus2• 12 years ago

Why do you want phonegap apps? Isnt the point of firefox os being web app ready?

LukeB_UK• 12 years ago

They don't. They want apps that are ported to Firefox os from phonegap apps.

Fasebook• 12 years ago

I thought HTML5 was renamed to just "HTML" you know, to be more clear and open like FireFox dropping version numbers.

Wanted: Awesome HTML5 app ports for Firefox OS and the Open Web

Related Stories