Feedback on HTML 5: Bury it!

W3C drafted new resolutions working draft for HTML 5, which may (I repeat "may") be available as a standard in couple of years, even if W3C convince all legacy browsers to be compatible to new drafted standards,  I for one don't see HTML 5 to be ever be accepted within developer community, I am actually surprised that W3C even bother drafting a new standards for HTML, there are not many developers who use HTML as their basic language, HTML is only used to render web pages at Client, no matter how far they stretch it HTML will still perform short with user interface,  scripting or managed code.

I am basing my judgement in accordance to the new and emerging technologies such as Silverlight, Flash, AIR, SVG, XUL, Java FX. HTML was thing of the past HTML was usable when Internet was accessed with a 56K dial up modem by the masses, that is just about a decade ago, we are still using HTML due to lack of proper browser standards but with new technologies especially Silverlight that is not going to last long.

Suggestion to W3C: Its about time we bury HTML deep where it actually belong and move ahead instead of going backwards.

Silverlight - as desktop application.

Silverlight, the Microsoft's weapon in RIA wars, it is the revolutionary technology determined to change the web trend. Microsoft coins the term "for the web" when referring to Silverlight applications,

"Deliver media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web that incorporate video, animation, interactivity, and stunning user interfaces."

- Microsoft Silverlight

It is clear every since the announcement of Silverlight at MIX'07. Opening the key note at MIX07 Ray Ozzie Chief Software Architect at Microsoft emphases the need for creating web application that provide the power of desktop computing on the Internet, and Silverlight is clearly the best approach.

Microsoft already had the .NET infrastructure in place for ASP.NET applications and Windows Forms and the introduction of .NET 3.0/WinFX (WPF/WCF/WF)  was the final nail in bring the best of the Internet services to the desktop computing.

With Silverlight, Microsoft is clearly targeting the best of desktop experience with Internet services. Many developers have been asking about running Silverlight applications standalone, from a drive or folder,as platform independent desktop application. This however beats the idea of Silverlight,  Silverlight is developed to provide desktop applications on the web. But because of  its architecture, Silverlight can also be run from a local location, (in Silverlight 2.0 can also access any web services). Microsoft have market leadership in desktop platform about 85% - 90%, and its only fair on developers to expect cross platform compatibility for the tools they develop, but Microsoft ignored them - till now.

Microsoft have always had monopoly when it came to platform, they would go out of their way to make sure that Microsoft desktop application are platform dependent (i.e., Windows) but rapid expansion of web applications is making "the web" another platform which is totally independent, and Silverlight is the solution for this scenario and as Ray Ozzie said "Silverlight bring the best of desktop applications and the best of web services - together".  It is be true the other way around.

Microsoft is penetrating deep in Adobe's territory, and Adobe is trying to gets its share from Microsoft's territory with Adobe AIR, Adobe hopes that it would gain a share of the market from Microsoft, I am not being critical of Adobe, I genuinely think Adobe AIR is a brilliant idea, but Adobe had this brain wave at the very wrong time, if you happens to know history being in the right time and right place is very important, you won't disagree with me if you have a look at Java and its history.

Adobe AIR can't compete with WPF applications, but if cross-platform compatibility is concerned, watch out Silverlight 2.0 is coming and Mozilla got a trick up its sleeve to help Silverlight archive it.

Mozilla the makers of FireFox, who already have cross platform browsers, came up with an idea, split web applications out if their browser and run them as desktop. They call it Prism, its a very simple idea provide a software that ideally is a web browser (FireFox), modify registry to save shortcuts on desktop/start menu/quick launch to launch the Prism instance and point to one web page/local html file.

"Unlike Adobe AIR and Microsoft Silverlight, we’re not building a proprietary platform to replace the web. We think the web is a powerful and open platform for this sort of innovation, so our goal is to identify and facilitate the development of enhancements that bring the advantages of desktop apps to the web platform."

Whatever be their intentions for creating Prism, to me it is nail in Adobe's coffin, and Microsoft is going to cash on it big time,  this provides development of one application in Silverlight host it on the web or tweak the same application to install and  run as a desktop application.

This people, is history in the making and I am glad to witness it and be part of it.

RichTextBox makes Rich RIA

Rich Text Box, probability the one feature that could change the face of Internet applications for good, that would take Silverlight platform to the extreme, both in terms of usability and adoption, this might give Adobe nightmare, and one that every HTML developer looking forward to.

If RichTextBox is made available in Silverlight 2.0, with binding capability with XML, many developers might pay their last respects to HTML and CSS, and server pages (PHP, ASPX, JSP) will be used to generate dynamic XAML instead of HTML. AJAX would be replaced with Silverlight, giving developers easy to manage extensions UI.

The framework for RichTextBox adoption is already in place, developers argue that this type of adoption will restrict the search bolts to search for data inside a Silverlight control, but RSS and ATOM feeds might come to rescue.

RichTextBox is already available in WPF application and the adopted in many applications like New York Times Reader, but its availably in Silverlight is still unknown, officially Microsoft hasn't spoken about this feature, and it isn't included in Silverlight 2.0 roadmap, the probability of seeing RichTextBox in Silverlight 2.0 is slim but the probability of such a feature is still there.

Rating:

FEATURE: 4.9/5

EXPECTANCY: 2/5

Issues - Silverlight 2.0 Backward compatibility with Silverlight 1.1 Applications.

I wonder how many times Microsoft is going to disappoint the developers community or early adopters of Silverlight.

When Microsoft first announced the technology I had mixed feelings about Silverlight, and I went on to even say "Silverlight, Why should I bother?" my problem was with Silverlight 1.1 Alpha, this is what I had to say then.

"The point is, yes, ideally Silverlight is a great concept, and it would revolutionise the way web looks, feels and works and it can even compete with Adobe Flash and put Adobe out of business even if you compromise Microsoft's poor graphic designers .If and only if Microsoft can actually finish what they started...

Don't take me wrong, I am totally happy with the work folks at Microsoft are doing and the concept of Silverlight, I just don't see the point of launching alpha version of a software that have a very long way to go and every one know what is missing. In days to come you will see Silverlight applications here and there, mostly in video streaming and few other games but the total power of Silverlight can only come to surface when Silverlight can support import of vector graphics from other formats, full security features (especially SSL), user controls (the basic controls will do), and finally database objects. "

And after seven months, nothing has changed, so I was right, they wanted MIX'07 to be a success and it pushed them to announce Silverlight 1.1. And they left early adopters waiting in anticipation for months on end then came the announcement by ScoutGu about renaming Silverlight 1.1 to Silverlight 2.0 and Beta version in MIX'08, now don't get me wrong but that is almost a year. Microsoft is never supportive of the developers, they tend to keep big secrets many suspected (including myself) that Silverlight 1.1 might take a long time to develop, but I could never have imagined that you will go to MIX'08 to announce Beta. I think Microsoft should atleast release Silverlight 2.0 Alpha by Christmas, they own these early adaptors something. I was hoping they might release Silverlight 2.0 Alpha December Preview, but it shattered with Mono's Moonlight announcement, the latest Moonlight release (1.2.6) supports Silverlight 1.1 applications, if we were getting December preview of Silverlight 2.0 then Moonlight won't have went to the trouble of release a version to support Silverlight 1.1. So that is it, we can't get to see Silverlight 2.0 till after MIX'08.

If you thought that was enough, the worst was yet to come, Silverlight 2.0's backward compatibility with Silverlight 1.1 applications was nagging me ever since Silverlight 2.0 announcement, when Tim Sneath posted Why Can't I "Go Live" with Silverlight 1.1 Alpha? on his blog and mentioned,

Silverlight 1.1 (now known as 2.0) is not ready for "Go Live" usage at this stage, and the EULA explicitly prohibits deployment in production sites.

I took the opportunity to ask him about Silverlight 2.0 backward compatibility with Silverlight 1.1  I wasn't really expecting Tim to answer as they are always secretive about future releases, but when Tim replied, the answer wasn't to my liking,

Imran, there are substantial breaking changes between the 1.1 alpha and what will become the final 2.0 release - we don't claim to be backward compatible with 1.1 alpha. However, 2.0 _is_ fully backward-compatible with 1.0 applications.

Now that is devastating, not for Microsoft but for the early adopters of the technology, Microsoft still benefited by the buzz and hype surrounding the Flash Vs Silverlight argument which only early adopters made possible, now if Silverlight 2.0 is going to be so different to Silverlight 1.1 to the extend that they can't even be compatible, then the question is what have the early adaptors of Silverlight 1.1 Alpha archived since Silverlight 1.1 was announced?

It was not about poor implementation or planning for Silverlight on Microsoft's part, every one knew what was missing, everyone know what was required, but still Microsoft went on to announce Silverlight 1.1 in MIX'07 just to create the hype in the developer community and provide the exclusive marketing with the developers.

If it was not for the early adopters of Silverlight 1.1, Silverlight 1.0 community won't have been where it is now and now we .NET developers have to start again in March after MIX'08.

I hope history doesn't repeat itself.