When I tried to answer your question I wrote whole essay, but later I realized that you will never read so mauch bunch of text. So I'll try to sum it up.
I'd like to bundle server-side code, because when I read about Packaged Apps I thought their main goal is to deliver offline web apps. You have browser withouth url bars etc. which can render HTML+CS+JS and it has to be bound to something. And I thought that something is some kind of small local server. Something similar to AppJS or TideSDK (earlier Titanium SDK). That server-side code could do some local things, but also could connect with cloud services. Also some of application's features could be attached to local resources from that local server or from remote one, just like in typical web application.
Maybe if it will be interesting I'll try to create some schema how it could looks like.
Why I'm looking for such solution? Because I think the web is the best when we talk about UI and I'd like to write business/application logic in whatever technology/language I want. Web technologies are great in separating UI design and pure programming, so software developers don't have to create crappy user interfaces, they can just create server (controllers etc.) and write application logic.
Nowedays I simply can't create cross platform offline application. If it has to be offline app, it's best to create it as native app and then I have to learn Qt or GTK or WPF or Android GUI or Swing etc. If it will be web app, it's hard to create it as offline app, but it is os independend. Even most of Chrome Web Apps in Chrome Store are just links to SaaS applications. I don't know many good web apps which are extensively using caching, html5 local db etc. and are usable withouth internet connection.
Maybe I just don't know the right technology to achieve my goals. I thought PhoneGap could be something interesting, but it's a bit too messy. Also mentioned earlier TideSDK isn't perfect and AppJS supports only NodeJS as backend.
It looks like it's not as short as i thought. I hope there're not so many mistakes and it's understandable.
Cheers,
W dniu czwartek, 8 listopada 2012 18:37:40 UTC+1 użytkownik Joe Marini napisał:
Packaged Apps also support Native Client (NaCL). I'm a but curious why you would want to bundle server-side code with your packaged app?
HTML5, CSS and JS are main web application technologies, but nowadays webapp are also bound to servers. In my opinion it IS great, because servers can handle whole logic and can be written in different languages etc.
Are there any plans to combine benefits from present webapps (with servers as a backend) with standalone Packaged Apps? Will be it possible to create really good/fancy UI with JS, HTML and CSS with Packaged App and for example deploy it together with with some local small server written in different language?
I saw there is something like AppJS. But it's connected to NodeJS and I'm not fan of NodeJS as server-side technology. For me better would be something in Python/Ruby/Java/.NET.
Will Packaged Apps be limited to only HTML5, CSS and JS?