"Ubiquity" is quite an unpleasant argument, isn't it? Like Flash, never mind those of us who don't or can't use that kind of browser.
Or those of us who aren't people: making something inaccessible to unthinking machines acting no my behalf adds layers of unnecessary complexity to this, which make it much less likely to take hold.
It'd matter less, I suppose, if we could somehow force Javascript and its object models into a box under our preferred scripting language.
Ubiquity, of course, isn't just about robots. The *really* persuasive argument against making Javascript required for these things is mobile - where Javascript support is patchy at best.
It can be argued that mobile platforms are more important to social networking, in the long run, than desktop platforms.
Brad: as you probably know, I'm pretty excited about the possibilities embedded in OpenID and OAuth. OpenID gives us one (or more) globally unique identifiers for people, OAuth lets us provide APIs that can access private data (such as a private friend's list) with that person's permission. I have high hopes for the OpenSocial REST API stuff, but I just can't get excited about the Google Gadgets bits.
I just signed in to http://www.ingridmichaelson.com/ so I'd actually have a better idea of how Friend Connect works, and I don't see anything there that should require JavaScript. Is it impossible to build a server-side API that can do the same thing that the JavaScript modules are doing at the moment for some reason?
JavaScript doesn't bother me ... what bothers me is that every new API is chock full of XML, even when it doesn't have to be. Way too much XML. As the saying goes: "XML is like violence: if it doesn't get the job done, use more."
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"Ubiquity" is quite an unpleasant argument, isn't it? Like Flash, never mind those of us who don't or can't use that kind of browser.
Or those of us who aren't people: making something inaccessible to unthinking machines acting no my behalf adds layers of unnecessary complexity to this, which make it much less likely to take hold.
It'd matter less, I suppose, if we could somehow force Javascript and its object models into a box under our preferred scripting language.
Joey Tyson - 13th May 2008 16:39 - #
Ubiquity, of course, isn't just about robots. The *really* persuasive argument against making Javascript required for these things is mobile - where Javascript support is patchy at best.
It can be argued that mobile platforms are more important to social networking, in the long run, than desktop platforms.
Dear Simon,
Not a chance.
Yours,
Google
Hi Simon, do you have some proposals for what this would look like?
Best,
Brad Neuberg
Brad Neuberg - 15th May 2008 21:48 - #
Brad: as you probably know, I'm pretty excited about the possibilities embedded in OpenID and OAuth. OpenID gives us one (or more) globally unique identifiers for people, OAuth lets us provide APIs that can access private data (such as a private friend's list) with that person's permission. I have high hopes for the OpenSocial REST API stuff, but I just can't get excited about the Google Gadgets bits.
I just signed in to http://www.ingridmichaelson.com/ so I'd actually have a better idea of how Friend Connect works, and I don't see anything there that should require JavaScript. Is it impossible to build a server-side API that can do the same thing that the JavaScript modules are doing at the moment for some reason?
JavaScript doesn't bother me ... what bothers me is that every new API is chock full of XML, even when it doesn't have to be. Way too much XML. As the saying goes: "XML is like violence: if it doesn't get the job done, use more."