Re:Unraveling HTML5 vs. Native
by Zigurd on Tuesday April 30, 2013 @07:17PM
(#5635513)
Not all Android APIs make sense in a Web browser. How does one implement an AppWidget, or violate the browser sandbox with a remote API?
Different runtime environments and different OSs have real differences. For some apps those differences don't matter. For others, they can make the difference between useful functionality and a pleasurable UX and a dull trudge through interactions that don't benefit from native platform capabilities.
Maybe Web apps will find their highest expression in OSs that feature Web runtimes. Java was supposed to be "write once, run anywhere" but, for interactive apps, it only became popular once Google wrote an OS and class library specific to that Java OS.
Different runtime environments and different OSs have real differences. For some apps those differences don't matter. For others, they can make the difference between useful functionality and a pleasurable UX and a dull trudge through interactions that don't benefit from native platform capabilities.
Maybe Web apps will find their highest expression in OSs that feature Web runtimes. Java was supposed to be "write once, run anywhere" but, for interactive apps, it only became popular once Google wrote an OS and class library specific to that Java OS.