“Driving Home Drunk With A 6′8″ Transvestite”…
Zed Shaw, “expert” programmer and “master” profanitist (see: Rails is a Ghetto), bangs out this hysterical gem in a paper about his XUL experimentation, an interesting take on that awkward, fuzzy space between desktop and web apps…
I see now that XUL has a distinct disadvantage as people don’t know whether to think of it as a desktop application or a web application. It looks like a desktop application. It feels like a desktop application. But wait, it sizes like a web application. Oh, and look it has web browser controls on top.
It’s like people are checking out CookbooXUL’s ass, roaming their eyes over its nice rack, then bam! They see facial hair and an adam’s apple. They suddenly become confused and don’t know how to evaluate it. “Oh no, am I using a web application? Does that make me gay? Holy crap, this thing is suddenly ugly for a web application. I mean sure, it’s got a sexy simple fast as hell body, but damn that’s one ugly mug. Could I switch over? What’s the point really? I’ll just stick to HTML I guess.”
I haven’t been following Adobe’s AIR lately, but it’s showed a little promise about showing the way to bridge this gap. I think I’ll keep my distance from these hybrids until someone nails down native look and feel.