| I am referring to networking and storage, not graphics or audio. At first glance it looks like the top-down massive surface area standards approach is making progress. But the APIs are really sub-par when compared to TCP, UDP, POSIX and what open source could do if given the chance to grow around them. The security reasons keeping raw TCP out of the browser apply to web pages, not web apps (trusted, installed, annointed with raw machine power to act on the user's behalf). This means that it is not possible to build a SMTP/POP/IMAP etc. client in the browser without the use of a third-party proxy (which introduces additional security concerns). This is a terrible blow to web apps. WebSockets are a diversion. WebRTC is a herculean effort. UDP should be beneath WebRTC not bundled alongside it. Again, web page security issues have been projected onto web apps, hence no directly exposed UDP. There is no decent offline storage mechanism in the browser. No POSIX. No fsync. No way to build any kind of performant database. IndexedDB is the only thing available. It is poorly designed to begin with and implementations at present are slow, buggy or lacking. It looks good in the to-do list demo's but beyond that is a pain to work with. I have seen Chrome's IndexedDB reboot Windows over and over again on occasion. All the great open source database implementations are locked out. Everyone is forced to grow over IndexedDB. Much better if LevelDB were directly exposed. But POSIX is what is needed. The major issue going forward with regard to web apps, is that they need to be seen as distinct from web pages, and when installed by the user, given access to the last 40 years of computing progress. |