What Are The Obstacles to HTML5 Living Up To It’s Potential?

This is a GREAT article from SD Times by Alex Handy that explains in detail the issues with HTML5 adoption!

What’s left for HTML5?

“HTML5 is a big specification, but the snapshot agreed upon this summer by the W3C offers a chance to assess the evolution until now. After five years of development as a specification, and various degrees of adoption from the browser makers, what do developers want from the still in-motion specification?

One area where work needs to be done is testing, said Jonas Jacobi, CEO of Kaazing. He added that this was one of the big problems for the W3C.

‘This is one of the criticisms raised by the Facebook team in a recent post to the W3C’s public channel,’ he said. ‘The lack of testing and good developer tools for the HTML5 feature set, including CSS3 and WebSocket, is an obstacle to rapidly create HTML5 applications. However, many companies are working to improve this experience.’

This is compounded by the fact that browser makers are implementing HTML5 on their own schedules, said Jacobi.

‘Those browser implementations are the real problem point for developers,’ he added. ‘One of the primary purposes of HTML5 is to improve browser compatibility in hope of reducing the burden of dealing with multiple different interpretations of HTML from browser to browser. We also have to remember that HTML5 specifications, plus standards that are closely associated with HTML5 such as CSS3 and WebSocket, are a substantial task to implement in their entirety. Browser vendors are currently racing to implement HTML5, but there are no rules about when to implement it; it is up to each vendor to decide. Until browsers have implemented a majority of the HTML5 features we are most likely to use, there will be gaps.’

And the term ‘browsers’ doesn’t just mean desktop applications anymore. With mobile applications and Web access near ubiquitous in the modern development world, HTML5 has to shoulder a double presentation burden for both the large and small screen. And this has been another complaint from Facebook: HTML5 development for mobile applications, said Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, is inferior to native.

Outside of Facebook, however, PhoneGap is a popular solution for porting applications to HTML5. With Adobe now shepherding that framework, and the Apache Foundation holding the open-source core of the project as Project Cordova, many developers now rely on the framework.

Ben Forta, director of developer relations at Adobe, said that Adobe’s focus for PhoneGap is now on tooling. Instead of turning PhoneGap itself into a commercial product, Adobe has decided to build an ecosystem around it. This ecosystem will address pain points, such as build.

To that end, PhoneGap Build was launched in September, offering a cloud-based build service hosted by Adobe. Rather than install all the various SDKs for the different mobile platforms and keep them up to date, PhoneGap Build allows developers to build their applications in the cloud, using an always up-to-date set of SDKs and tools.

Indeed, Jacobi believed that PhoneGap is a great way to create mobile apps. ‘We have seen the trend swing back and forth multiple times already, and again, it comes down to your individual needs,’ he said. ‘For the majority of companies looking to support mobile platforms, HTML5 will be more than enough. If you use technology such as Apache Cordova to build your HTML5 application, the user experience will be very close to an application developed completely in native code.’

Playing with the Web

Another major aspect of HTML5 is its new graphical rendering capabilities. From WebGL’s 3D rendering technology, to Canvas’ ability to place complex animations and scalable vector graphics onto Web pages, the opportunity to programmatically render graphical interfaces and games within the browser has grown tremendously with HTML5. One company that’s pushing the boundaries on what HTML5 can do is YoYo Games, the creator of the introductory yet powerful game development IDE, GameMaker.

Traditionally, GameMaker has been a Windows-only development environment, both for building games in the IDE and for deploying them to playable binaries. But after a recent purchase of the company and a reworking of the GameMaker platform, YoYo Games is now able to export GameMaker games into HTML5.

Mike Dailly, head of development at YoYo Games, said that the WebGL and WebAudio implementations that are in browsers now need a bit of work. He said their maturation is needed, but that the experience was pleasant overall.

“The HTML5 engine part is pretty straightforward,” said Dailly. ‘We do some clever bits to speed things up. Most of the smarts is in how we take GameMaker games and translate them into HTML5. From a development point of view, what you want from an engine is something that draws sprites to the screen, which HTML5 has.’

That’s not to say the specification had everything needed for this project. ‘We cheat an awful lot because HTML5 doesn’t give us everything we need,” said Dailly. “We dynamically make new images, cache them, and do every pixel by hand. Most of the core parts, like canvas and draw sprite, are static. There are bugs, but the actual core I/O elements are pretty steady. WebGL and WebAudio need to mature a bit. Joystick support is only in Chrome, but coming to Firefox. When it starts to spread, we’ll look to implement it. There’re a lot of bits people have thrown in for specific browsers. We tend not to support those.'”

Dr. Bill.TV #261 – Video – “The Ubuntu Linux 12.10 Demo Install Edition!”

Ubuntu 12.10 is out, today we show how to install it on VirtualBox! GSotW: ProjectLibre! Microsoft promises better IMAP support in Outlook 2013. Zune is dead! Geek Wisdom for this week from Quantum Leap.

Links that pertain to this Netcast:

TechPodcasts Network

Blubrry Network

ProjectLibre Open Source Microsoft Project Clone


Start the Video Netcast in the Blubrry Video Player above by
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Dr. Bill.TV #261 – Audio – “The Ubuntu Linux 12.10 Demo Install Edition!”

Ubuntu 12.10 is out, today we show how to install it on VirtualBox! GSotW: ProjectLibre! Microsoft promises better IMAP support in Outlook 2013. Zune is dead! Geek Wisdom for this week from Quantum Leap.

Links that pertain to this Netcast:

TechPodcasts Network

Blubrry Network

ProjectLibre Open Source Microsoft Project Clone


Start the Video Netcast in the Blubrry Video Player above by
clicking on the “Play” Button in the center of the screen.

(Click on the buttons below to Stream the Netcast in your “format of choice”)
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Streaming MP3 Audio

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Available on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/5_Ti7uIMZnY

Available on Vimeo at: https://vimeo.com/51908293


Outlook 2013 to Have Better Support for the IMAP Protocol

Microsoft supporting outside standards? Now THAT is news! (We’ll see how well they manage it!)

Microsoft promises better IMAP support in Outlook 2013

“Previous versions of Microsoft’s Outlook email client have not pleased users who have been waiting for more support for the Internet Message Access Protocol, better known as IMAP. Indeed, the recently launched email web service Outlook.com does not support IMAP.

For the stand alone Outlook 2013 client, Microsoft says it wants to make a better effort to support IMAP. In a new post on the official Outlook blog, Microsoft says that new email notifications using IMAP will be supported, along with being able to recognize special folders.

Outlook 2013 users will no longer have to wait for sync to be completed in order to start using the client due to the new background syncing and sending of email messages. The blog states, ‘General comments about Outlook’s performance when using IMAP was the top issue we heard from all of you, and we believe this change will improve the experience quite a bit.’

The new version of Outlook will let users sync any IMAP-based emails that are newer than three, six or 12 months via a new setting. Microsoft says, “If you’re working in a situation where bandwidth is expensive or otherwise constrained, we recommend using the above new setting to limit the amount of mail you sync to provide the best experience.’

Not all of the IMAP requests from users will be put into Outlook 2013. Microsoft says the Download Headers Only feature for IMAP users won’t be in the new version; ‘We believe the best experience in Outlook is when you have the entire mail downloaded, and that folks who use Download Headers Only would benefit from our new sync offline setting above.’

Categories also won’t be a part of the IMAP support for Outlook 2013 because the protocol itself won’t allow for such a feature. Microsoft states, ‘As a result, we weren’t able to engineer a feature that ensures that categories (including the color and name of the category) you assign on one computer are stored on the server and available on all your other computers, or even available on your same computer if you have to recreate your Outlook profile.'”

Geek Software of the Week: ProjectLibre!

ProjectLibre

You know I love Open Source! And, I am always looking for alternatives to Microsoft software that is free, open Source, and that I can recommend. Well, here ya go! A FREE Open Source Microsoft Project compatible clone! How awesome is that? It even as a “ribbon” interface!

ProjectLibre Open Source Microsoft Project Clone

  • “Compatibility with Microsoft Project 2010
  • New Ribbon User Interface
  • Printing feature (wow, how was that not available)
  • Major bug fixes & more

It took a lot of work over many years but will be a significant alternative to Microsoft Project!

Our initial goal with ProjectLibre was to launch the ProjectLibre Project Server to produce a complementary server side solution that would replace Microsoft Project Server. We started down this road, but it was apparent the lack of a valid desktop alternative to Microsoft Project would be an issue for our ultimate mission. Our first step clearly was providing ProjectLibre on the desktop. We will release ProjectLibre Server as our second release. We want to build a large community and are pursuing this full time. We’ll figure a way to put our kids through college somehow! We do appreciate contributions and the opportunity for customization, implementation and training :-) There are enormous benefits in replacing Microsoft’s proprietary project solutions with ProjectLibre’s open source alternative! Once again, it is released in beta and was downloaded the first two weeks in 134 countries. You can download it free!”

Ubuntu 12.10, aka “Quantal Quetzal” Arrives Today!

A new Ubuntu Desktop OS is always fun, and this one actually looks like it will be different enough to warrant a download and install! I am looking forward to it!

Ubuntu 12.10

Download Link for Ubuntu Linux

Ubuntu 12.10 is built on the 3.5.4 Linux kernel. You’ll alos find the GNOME 3.6 applications and libraries, but, of course, not Gnome itself as the default interface. Instead, you will have the Unity interface and the HUD (Head’s Up Display.) You’ll also find the latest versions of popular Linux desktop applications, such as: Firefox 16.01; LibreOffice 3.6.2, and Thunderbird 16.01.

Awesome stuff… time to play!

Dr. Bill.TV #260 – Video – “The Look, It’s a Bird Edition!”

Firefox 16 offers new tools for Web developers, Microsoft Office reaches RTM, Mozilla fixes Firefox 16, Windows 8 pricing model announced, GSotW: CurrPorts, the first Windows 8 advertisement, and Geek Wisdom from a Bond movie!

Links that pertain to this Netcast:

TechPodcasts Network

Blubrry Network

CurrPorts v2.02 – Monitoring Opened TCP/IP network ports / connections


Start the Video Netcast in the Blubrry Video Player above by
clicking on the “Play” Button in the center of the screen.

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Streaming MP3 Audio

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Available on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/kNn7p00n1z8

Available on Vimeo at: https://vimeo.com/51417455


Dr. Bill.TV #260 – Audio – “The Look, It’s a Bird Edition!”

Firefox 16 offers new tools for Web developers, Microsoft Office reaches RTM, Mozilla fixes Firefox 16, Windows 8 pricing model announced, GSotW: CurrPorts, the first Windows 8 advertisement, and Geek Wisdom from a Bond movie!

Links that pertain to this Netcast:

TechPodcasts Network

Blubrry Network

CurrPorts v2.02 – Monitoring Opened TCP/IP network ports / connections


Start the Video Netcast in the Blubrry Video Player above by
clicking on the “Play” Button in the center of the screen.

(Click on the buttons below to Stream the Netcast in your “format of choice”)
Streaming M4V Audio





Streaming MP3 Audio

Streaming Ogg Audio

Download M4V Download WebM Download MP3 Download Ogg
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Available on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/kNn7p00n1z8

Available on Vimeo at: https://vimeo.com/51417455


Geek Software of the Week: CurrPorts!

CurrPorts

A neat utility to see what ports are open on your system!

CurrPorts v2.02 – Monitoring Opened TCP/IP network ports / connections

  • “Network Inventory – automated agent-free network inventory software. Network Inventory Advisor automatically discovers all network assets (Windows, Mac OS, Linux, SNMP-powered devices & more), scans them and builds network inventory reports.
  • SmartSniff – Capture TCP/IP packets on your network adapter
  • SocketSniff – Windows Sockets (WinSock) Sniffer

CurrPorts is network monitoring software that displays the list of all currently opened TCP/IP and UDP ports on your local computer. For each port in the list, information about the process that opened the port is also displayed, including the process name, full path of the process, version information of the process (product name, file description, and so on), the time that the process was created, and the user that created it.

In addition, CurrPorts allows you to close unwanted TCP connections, kill the process that opened the ports, and save the TCP/UDP ports information to HTML file , XML file, or to tab-delimited text file.

CurrPorts also automatically mark with pink color suspicious TCP/UDP ports owned by unidentified applications (Applications without version information and icons)”

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