In addition to some web pages, I also develop software for use on the
desktop. I use a development product from a company named Real
Software ( http://www.realsoftware.com/ ). Real software (RB) has
recently announced a development environment for web apps. This
appears to be like running excel in a browser window instead of on
your desktop. Anyway, one of these days I guess I am going to have to
figure out how to merge an RB web app into a Freeway page. Maybe in
an iFrame?
I’ve been using Freeway to build the View layer of Web apps since 1997
or so. Pretty much my first or second site had some elements of an
interactive application to it. Things got a lot more interesting in
the past four or five years, with the wide-spread use of Ajax and
other back-channel communication methods to have the user interface
talk to the server without a full page refresh. But even the most
basic CGI is by definition a loosely-coupled application.
My TemplateHelper and CrowBar Actions are useful tools for carving up
the Freeway layout and using the resulting fragments as
interchangeable template elements for a reload-free application.
The thing that Freeway has never helped with at all is the logic
(Model and Controller) part of the application “stack”. For that, you
still need to bench-press a Billy full of fat books, then break out a
text editor or IDE and start coding from scratch or from a framework.
If Real manages to create a more plug-together coding environment,
that can only be a good thing. It’ll be interesting to see how this
goes, and whether it manages to capture some of the low-hanging fruit
in the application development market.
Walter
On Sep 14, 2010, at 8:57 PM, LLE Freeway wrote:
Have web apps in Freeway been discussed and I have not been paying
attention? Or is this something relatively new?
Any thoughts?
On Sep 15, 2010, at 8:38 AM, Walter Lee Davis wrote:
I’ve been using Freeway to build the View layer of Web apps since 1997
or so…
Thank you Walter for that great explanation. As always, you sure are a
great asset to this forum.
I have my fingers in so many pies that I can’t keep up anymore. I have
written some web pages using HTML ( before I had Freeway ) and have
hand coded some PHP, but that is about it for low level stuff. I did
a little Java programming, but passed on Javascript when I had the
chance to be paid to learn it, my bad.
I read somewhere there are two classes of people, experts and
generalists. Experts know more and more about less and less until they
know everything about nothing. Generalists know less and less about
more and more until they know nothing about everything. I believe I
am a generalist.
Experts know more and more about less and less until they
know everything about nothing. Generalists know less and less about
more and more until they know nothing about everything.
So no matter which way you go you end up in the same place? Swell… no wonder i’m so unhappy. There is no goal after all.
