RESENTERS
Estelle Weyl – UpTake Networks Inc
Chris Wilson – Microsoft
Aza Raskin – Mozilla/Songza
Alex Russell – Google
Michael Lucaccini – Archetype
The web is going the same way as automobiles. As things get more complex it is getting harder and harder to pop open the hood and see/understand what is going on. Nowadays it is more like popping the hood with another hood under it.
Tools like JQuery are great but they add a lot of complexity when a builder is trying to dig into why/how things work
You can still figure things out but it is getting harder and harder
View Source made a lot of sense when the web was pure text... this is no longer the case
View source commoditizes the the core things you need... eg. no need to rebuild the wheel everytime
View Source is really evolving into tools like Firebug. Cannot build a modern site without digging deeper into how and why things work.
View Source has helped to keep the web open and has also forced security since people could dig in and see what was actually going on. Since you could view source and see what was going on it kept people on their toes.
HTML is easily understood by many many humans and that is what has made View Source powerful.
Growing pressure to optimize speed and performance it is critical to obfuscate JS. You may be able to see the code but it is so optimized it is not humanly readable... ever.
Javascript is moving closer to Silverlight and Flash in that it is becoming a black box. Getting harder and harder to learn how to do stuff on the web.
Just like learning how to tinker with a car it is now essential that people start by learning small pieces at a time and growing knowledge/skill. Takes a lot longer now than it did 10 years ago.
Really important for newbies to be able to see the possibility of where they can go.
The web has always been about learning from others. That is how we go so far so fast.
Slippery slope of allowing people to see and access your code while still maintaining your Intellectual Property.
There is a lot of really REALLY bad code out there and View Source also exposes it to newbies.
There are lots of parts to the web that are not view source-able. Video is a big new area that hides tons of the inner workings. HTML5 is moving in the right direction but there is still a lot of work to be done.
HTML5 is much more tweakable and therefore much more open and is fairly open, especially compared to Flash
Hackability is the opposite side of the View Source arguement.
Fiddling with tools like GreaseMonkey are critical to allowing power users to modify sites and services to work better for them
Question - why are we pushing such complexity?
Getting harder to learn how to use all of the technologies at an expert level across all browsers. Tools like JQuery really help with this consistency across everything.
Semantic web relies heavily on text based tools to utilize code and content that is out there.
Growing fear that we are increasing the barriers to entry. You can make things simpler but there is inherent complexity that has to be moved somewhere else (eg. server side vs client side)
We need to make sure we are building and evolving the web in a way that keeps it in line with our true use cases.
Mobile web has changed things again. HTML5 is being used and consumed but all of the new devices and frameworks are pushing way faster that developers can keep up with.
There is no View Source on iPhone or Android
Lack of an editor makes it even harder to develop on mobile
Need to move past the traditional scenario of local editing on local desk... needs to evolve as quickly as mobile and new trends
Relationship between the user and the browser is a very personal experience
At the end of the day we need to protect users
Web platform has been playing catchup to traditional computers and we are on the cusp of getting there. The challenge is that it needs to span across a ton of devices, screens, hardware, use cases.
Developers should try to build sites that are as flexible as possible to work across all of these things.
The open web has been a fast follower and as other technologies figure out what they want and need to be (eg. Flash/Silverlight) the web will follow closely. HTML5 can now do what Flash has done for a while. Web lets others figure it out and then steps in. New emerging tech will take the place of the old guys like Flash and the web tools will need to follow them down the road.
Right now we are doing way too much in Javascript. For example CSS animations are way better for animation rather than doing it with JS.
Must use the right tech for the job
AndreG
Copyright 2012 Scribble Technologies Inc. Tous droits réservés.
