Hi

I showed EWB to a full time web app builder (asp).  These are just some comments that he gave.

1. Very easy to use
2. Sites look a bit too much like desktop apps
3. A lot of JS behind site

It is still early days and I am very optimistic about the way EWB is going, but I love Delphi so I may be a bit biased.  I think it is good to get some feedback from some outsiders.  What is everyones thoughts on this.

Hi Godfrey

The key point is that EWB allows you to build a rich app that runs
entirely in the browser (a "browser app"), but which can retrieve its
data from the web or a LAN. ASP is a server-based technology - although
you can build web apps of a sort, to me they're more like web sites that
serve data (although it's years since I did any ASP.NET work and I'd
imagine there's some ability to use JS now).

> 2. Sites look a bit too much like desktop apps

To me the main advantage of EWB is that I can build a desktop app that
runs in a browser - it's not a web site and isn't meant to be one.
Outlook Web Access is a familiar example of a browser app that might
help your colleague understand the type of solution that EWB provides.
Take a look at this link for the type of UI that I'm sure EWB will be
able to create in the near future:

http://dev.sencha.com/deploy/ext-4.0.0/examples/layout-browser/layout-browser.html


ExtJS is a widely used JS development environment, but even in this case
I believe EWB has a significant advantage. AFAIU ExtJS still requires a
server to operate, whereas EWB can be purely client side (maybe Tim can
confirm this). In any case ExtJS requires you to code in JS, and who
wants to do that

Cheers, Bob


On 28/01/2012 10:44, Godfrey Fletcher wrote:
> Hi
>
> I showed EWB to a full time web app builder (asp).  These are just some comments that he gave.
>
> 1. Very easy to use
> 2. Sites look a bit too much like desktop apps
> 3. A lot of JS behind site
>
> It is still early days and I am very optimistic about the way EWB is going, but I love Delphi so I may be a bit biased.  I think it is good to get some feedback from some outsiders.  What is everyones thoughts on this.
>

Just an additional related comment - with the release of XE2 and EWB
I've completely changed my development plans and have dumped .NET
entirely. For so-called "Line of Business" apps that run on the LAN I
think html5/JS will eventually displace .NET Winforms apps, and
Silverlight already looks shaky. It's early days but the tools are
coming and EWB will be one of them.

There's obviously still a place for desktop apps, but the new world of
fragmented operating systems (brought on by Apple and Android) means it
doesn't make sense to develop for a single platform - I believe
FireMonkey will eventually make a big impact in this space.

Cheers, Bob

Godfrey

>2. Sites look a bit too much like desktop apps

I thought that was the idea. For me one of the main reasons it looks like a desktop app is the caption bar - but it can be turned off.

>3. A lot of JS behind site

What was he expecting.

Roy Lambert

Bob,

<< For so-called "Line of Business" apps that run on the LAN I think html5/JS will eventually displace .NET Winforms apps, and Silverlight already looks shaky. It's early days but the tools are coming and EWB will be one of them. >>

I have been to an event in Lisbon last tuesday, with Pawel Glowacki from Embarcadero, and I heard from him that Microsoft officially announced that they are abandoning Silverlight, and Adobe also announced already they are dumping Flash.

--
Fernando Dias
[Team Elevate]

>> 2. Sites look a bit too much like desktop apps

> To me the main advantage of EWB is that I can build a
> desktop app that runs in a browser

+1

Greetings ... Peter
---
Sorry for my weird english

Hi All

Thanks for the responses.  It gives me a better insight into what EWB can do.

Also, the example I showed the web programmer, was my first try at EWB so it probally was
not the best example.  Did not know you could disable top bar.

Love the idea of EWB being cross platform, this is defintely a huge advantage.

Godfrey


>Did not know you could disable top bar.

I only know because Tim's demo didn't have one so I went looking.

Roy Lambert

Godfrey,

<< 2. Sites look a bit too much like desktop apps >>

Please note that this is only because I *chose* to make it look that way.
If I got rid of some borders and did some other mods to the theme (or used a
different theme), you would not be able to tell it from a "normal" site.
You can make an EWB application look any way that you want, and once you see
the THTMLObject component in action, you'll see how you can display rich
content like HTML pages right along with the EWB controls/functionality.

<< 3. A lot of JS behind site >>

I'm not normally a betting man, but I would definitely bet that straight-up
HTML will eventually go the way of the dinosaur in favor of fully,
interactive sites.  JS is going to be the engine behind all of that, in some
form or another.  Plus, using JS to generate HTML is more efficient than
hand-coding everything in HTML, both in the download sizes and in the amount
of effort involved.

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com

Bob,

<< AFAIU ExtJS still requires a server to operate, whereas EWB can be purely
client side (maybe Tim can confirm this). >>

AFAIK, ExtJS doesn't require a server to operate.

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com