[beeneto]

People are mentioning Fluid and Prism, but nobody is mentioning HTML Applications http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML_Application.

It still works on Windows, just rename a .html file .hta. You get the appearance of a real application and special privileges through windows scripting.

On an unrelated note I like that application development is moving in the direction of using web technologies for offline software, but I don't like the fragmentation I'm seeing with the Windows Metro apps, Chrome apps, Firefox OS apps, Phonegap apps all using different manifests/APIs.

It would make more sense for developers and consumers if some of the people working on these were to work together and come up with a standard.

[masklinn]

> People are mentioning Fluid and Prism, but nobody is mentioning HTML Applications http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML_Application.

Or ios's "Add to HomeScreen" alongside "Offline Web Applications"[0], which I believe has been there since the first iphone.

[0] http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/...

[justinschuh]

I don't use iOS, but Chrome has had "Create Application Shortcut" since I think version 1. The Chrome apps platform is very different from that, and probably more comparable to iOS or Android apps, or what Mozilla pursued with XULRunner.

[masklinn]

> I don't use iOS, but Chrome has had "Create Application Shortcut" since I think version 1.

Does "Create Application Shortcut" stuff work offline for compatible web applications, or does it just create a shortcut to a chromeless version (à la Fluid)? I can find no conclusive evidence towards the former by browsing.

[justinschuh]

the short answer is yes. The slighter longer answer is that the application shortcut is just some extra command-line parameters, and doesn't materially alter the workings of offline stuff like AppCache or LocalStorage.