Re:ActiveShell: A Shell for the Web
by programnature on Monday January 16, 2012 @01:24PM
(#3471785)
I think a better formulation of the same concept is the following: Web is the new lowest common denominator.
The lowest common denominator used to be the shell. The one thing you can always depend on being there, and with well-understood standards.
Obviously people realized the benefits of more sophisticated graphical UIs, but without one standard UI framework across platforms, you couldn't have a replacement for the general purpose shell.
Web technology now provides that standard UI framework, and is programmable/extensible by a vast number of devs without learning some platform-specific or esoteric UI framework. Its a bonus that it also runs on devices that don't have shell access.
The lowest common denominator used to be the shell. The one thing you can always depend on being there, and with well-understood standards.
Obviously people realized the benefits of more sophisticated graphical UIs, but without one standard UI framework across platforms, you couldn't have a replacement for the general purpose shell.
Web technology now provides that standard UI framework, and is programmable/extensible by a vast number of devs without learning some platform-specific or esoteric UI framework. Its a bonus that it also runs on devices that don't have shell access.