Three reasons why Internet-based applications are a bad idea

I'm at the planning stages of writing a new app, and was weighing the online-app vs local-app thing. You're article really made me think about it. Especially as my app will probably be used largely on the weekends, when ISP service may be less than optimal, if available at all.

Thanks.

If your market is writing apps to run on a corporate intranet, apps that will replace green screen CICS programs, these three reasons don't hold true. Remember that most software in existence did not come from a box, but instead was written by companies for their own use.

Sun is going for a big chunk of the software market here, but it has nothing to do with what the home user thinks of as software. Think about the app that the bank teller uses to process your transaction, or the app that the person on the other end of the phone is using to enter your order in the phone system, or the app I am working on to allow the financial reporting department of an insurance company to balance monthly reports against the general ledger.

The article on NewsForge is absolutely correct, but none of those three reasons apply to the market that Sun is targeting. On an in house intranet, web hosted apps are fine.

"If your market is writing apps to run on a corporate intranet, apps that will replace green screen CICS programs, these three reasons don't hold true."

Very true. There are many number of applications in the enterprise that would fit perfectly in browser based applications. Think of all the application that access databases, all that is needed is an AJAX implementation. Think of e-mail with calendaring, think of applications used only to view documents and fill forms. Web services is not a solution for all, but it can be used in many areas where it is suitable and practical.

number6x, Abe: I've had great success with one green-screen app by first moving it from hand-coded terminal escape sequences to ncurses, then munging the form and menu code (through which practically all screen interface pipes) to make web and wxWidgets interfaces. I wrouight some changes so that confirmations are done by popovers instead The users can now run in any or all of text mode, GUI or web, which allows them to migrate piecemeal and at their own pace.

The company I work at, we are looking at utilizing web services applications (browser based) for Electronic Document Management Systems (EDMS). Take a look at this link. It is pretty neat presentation of an application called FileNet P8. If using FF, before you click the link, you need to allow popups, otherwise you will not see the Screen cam presentation.

http://www.altien.com/WebXtra_AJAX