This is interesting - just as AJAX essentially reinvented a technology that had been around for ages and breathed new life into it, Russell Beattie has rediscovered another old Microsoft technology - HTML Applications (HTAs) (Russell's find is also reported with a brief commentary at Ajaxian.)
The technique can take a single page browser app and turn it into a 'proper' Windows like app, presumably along with the ability to manipulate files (as long as you're on a Windows box that is)...
If only I had time to explore this a little...if I can use HTAs to save arbitrary text strings to a file, it'd be a handy way of saving web page app generated OPML file like the one created by my social bookmarking OPML feed generator
Interesting how Javascript, once much maligned for not being a 'proper' programming language is continuing to find its way out of the browser and onto the desktop (which reminds me, I've not had a look at what's going on in Konfabulator Yahoo! widgets land for a bit...
And interesting how a lot of stuff coming out of Web 2.0 has been around for years (DHTML, anybody?).
So is Web 2.0 a remake of Web 1.0, or a sequel?
Posted by ajh59 at March 20, 2006 07:28 PM