Comments on: Crockford Speaks on “Fixing the Web” and Appears on Channel 9

By: Ajax World Conference - Day 2 « dambalah

Ajax World Conference - Day 2 « dambalah — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 14:34:22 +0000

[…] more coverage of Crockford’s Keynote address, check out these articles: 1, […]

By: James Chappell

James Chappell — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 05:43:09 +0000

Crockford is going to fix the web, and countless other companies are going to fix email. How about this…fix people? I don’t use my computer for anything that requires ‘real’ PII or FI. I have the unbelieveable cost of a stamp every now and then, but oh well. Yes using the web to do all things financial and shopping is a convenience, but trust me…your life will still be complete if you choose not to do so.

By: Desmond

Desmond — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 03:56:59 +0000

While what Douglas has said has merits, it would do well to elaborate on the solutions at a much broader level than the 3 tweaks proposed. If you rake up a topic like this, you better know where to take it to!

By: Douglas Crockford’s blog | Grayger

Douglas Crockford’s blog | Grayger — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 12:29:36 +0000

[…] of JavaScript seems to be one of his current concerns. His recent talk shows his approaches toward the security […]

By: Douglas Crockford

Douglas Crockford — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 18:37:38 +0000

HTML was not state of the art at its introduction as a document presentation system, as a hypertext system, or as an application delivery system. HTML was condemned by the SGML community because it lacked most of the features they felt were required for a document format. It was many years before HTML afforded control over formatting and layout. In my view, it is still inadequate. The design of HTML was not informed by the works of Engelbart and Nelson, so it lacked most of what was considered necessary for a hypertext system. The thing that HTML got right, in my view, was its simplicity. HTML’s design came much closer to the minimal ideal than did SGML or Xanadu. I think minimalism is seriously underrated.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 17:35:59 +0000

This problem of “fixing the ____” comes up so often in technology, and yet there are barely any examples of it really succeeding. It’s a provacative idea for a talk, and it’s a good rhetorical tool to get ideas going, but seriously, this ain’t never gonna happen. “Douglas suggests replacing JavaScript and the DOM and going from there…”? Yes, good: let’s do that, you stop by Redmond and talk to them, I’ll head over to Mozilla and try to meet with their top men.

I mean, it’s tough that we’ve got this weird hybridized development environment where there are security holes, leaky abstractions, and the possibility of shooting yourself in the foot at ever turn. It’s a tough world to work in. But the web browser is arguably the most successful class of software ever. As a platform for developing networked applications, it’s worked incredibly freaking well, better than any other attempt.

By: Eric Miraglia

Eric Miraglia — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 16:40:07 +0000

@Josh– I agree with you (and I suspect Douglas would as well) that the browser and the web as a networked document-sharing system was brilliant and the early browsers as forgiving, flexible viewers for that content were instrumental in changing the way the world communicates. But, as you say, they were always behind the times as platforms for developing networked applications. They are arguably further behind the times now than they were in 1994. -Eric

By: Josh J

Josh J — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:33:21 +0000

I haven’t looked up Crockford’s credentials or listened to this speech, but I hope he worded what he said a bit more carefully than “The browser…was behind the times when it was introduced.” That’s a bit like saying that the Gutenburg printing press was behind the times.

Behind the times compared to other application platforms? Probably. Behind the times compared to other communications media? No. Could any other technology out there at “the times” have enabled the revolution that the web browser did? Apparently not.

Controversial statements get you attention and might just get you posted on the YUI blog, but they can also make you look a bit foolish. But I’ll assume that Crockford knows what he’s talking about, and that that was just lost in the summarization.