Browser based apps that run offline!

People are really taking web applications a lot more seriously. Enter connectionless browser apps! So far there are a few frameworks and tools out their to give your browser the ability to run specially enables applications offline. This means we could see a lot of applications moving to the web. It makes sense though. Who really wants to download every application, especially those that are tied to the internet. I have to try out any of these frameworks for myself. I am thinking of giving google gears a whirl. So far it seems to be leading the back and they are pushing for an open framework for writing such applications that would be cross browser and cross platform. That would be nice!

Google Web Toolkit

Last night I had a date with google web toolkit. I have played with it before I was out to do a refresher course. So I got the latest version, now at 1.4 and I said I am going to figure this thing out and figure it out I did, well almost. I was able to use it to get a simple javascript application up and was trying to do some remote request stuff, which I was having problems with all the way up until I decided to quit and call it a night.

so what is GWT? Its a java framework for building javascript applications. Not everybody wants to take the time to learn how to write javascript, but just about everybody wants to get in on the new Rich Internet Application buzz. The solution is to create a compiler that takes Java (the most ubiquitous computer language) and converts it to an application that you can run in your browser with Ajax and All. I thought it was pretty neat. The interface for creating buttons and panels and labels and texboxes reminds of me of programming Java Swing. So if you are a great Java UI programmer you will have little trouble getting up and running with google web toolkit.