Blogging Roller

With the right amount of JavaScript and DHTML it is possible to create a slick Web application that behaves a whole lot like a traditional desktop application. Take a look at Microsoft Outlook Web Access, Microsoft's Web client for Outlook. It behaves a lot like a desktop application, even on Firefox.

Google's new GMail Web mail application apparently looks and acts a lot like a desktop application as well. I haven't seen it yet, but take a look at what Rafe Colburn had to say about it:

Rafe Colburn Very slick. Most impressive though is that this is the first email client that I've used (maybe ever) that does something completely different with email than the dominant paradigm. I'm glad to see innovation of some kind happening on the email front [...].

And Aaron's Scwartz's take on it:

Aaron's Scwartz I have also received a Gmail account and can concur. Gmail uses clever JavaScript tricks to try to come close to the usability of a GUI email client -- and it comes quite close. It's incredibly fast, it's got nice keyboard controls, and the interface is simple and clean. But it doesn't have any of the features of a web app. There are no URLs, the back button does not work, links are faked, pages are coded in JavaScript and not HTML. It isn't a web application, it's a GUI application that just happens to run inside a Web browser.

Maybe it shouldn't, but this troubles me. Everybody - and by everybody I mean enterprise software customers and product managers - seems to want Web applications to behave just like desktop applications. I don't like that, but perhaps I am just a lazy developer, spoiled by Swing, and yearning for sweet SWT. This leads me to two questions and these are not rhetorical questions. These are real questions and I do not know the answers to them.

First: is it possible to create a Web application that behaves just like the desktop application and is accessible to those who are differently-abled? Sure, you can create beautifully designed and aesthetically pleasing Web sites that are accessible, but can you create super-slick Web applications that behave just like desktop applications and are still accessible? Obviously, Google put a lot of effort into making Gmail behave like a desktop application and where did that get them? It got them on Mr. Accessibility's shit-list. See what I mean:

Mark Pilgrim: NOTE TO SERGEY BRIN: stop dressing yourself in drag, fire one of your PhDs, and use the money to buy yourself a cluestick. Then beat your developers with it until they start taking accessibility seriously. I don't want to read a single review of Gmail that doesn't contain the words 'discriminates against the blind'. This isn't rocket science, people. Try harder.

Second: assuming that it is possible to create a Web application that behaves just like a traditional desktop application and is accessible, does that mean it is a good thing to do so? Most people - and by most people I mean enterprise software customers - know how to use the Web. They know how to use My Yahoo, they know how to use Fidelity.com, and they expect Web applications to behave like Web applications - don't they?

We've been making some big improvements to the Roller Editor UI. It is not as slick as a desktop application and it is not exactly accessible, but it is a lot better than it used to be. Below is a screenshot and you can see a recent revision running on Matt Raible's demo site. Feedback is welcome.