Applications Development - Web vs Desktop in Microsoft Land

[InfoDan]

Hi

We are searching for suitable information to help select the right development software.

Q1 - What factors to use, to determine whether to develop on the Web or Desktop

Q2 - Which development software to use TODAY, for Web (ASP6 vs ASP.NET), for Desktop (VB6 or VB.NET).

Thanks in advance

 

[JimHorton]

To Q1, who are the end-users, and what is the app to accomplish? If the answer to the user question is anyone and everyone, then the web has to be the way to go.

If the answer is 'a known set of users on known hardware', such as your client's or your companie's employees (order entry personell, CS personell, etc) then desktop is absolutely the way to go, since you will never get anywhere near the flexibility, power, speed, stability and security, that you get with a desktop--on a web based app. It just isn't there..

If you know your user base is on Windows 9x-2k, a vb6 app can be rolled out with all the aforementioned advantages in quicker time than some web app--that is if you did the web app and could ever get the users to agree on--what--Netscape 6?... or will it only work on Netscape 4? Or maybe it only works on IE 5.5, or maybe not...or maybe only if you have the right plug-ins...blah, blah...you get the picture about web apps' idiosycnracies. Not that there aren't setup issues with a desktop app, but in my opinion the stability, flexibility, etc, etc, from a desktop app is well worth it--if the hardware platform is known and somewhat controllable. And as for connectivity, a vpn will get your app available anywhere in the world, just as if the user were in the office--all the advantages of the internet with none of the disadvantages.

Q2...I would love to come out and say to stay away from .net, but I haven't used it, so I can't make an informed statement on that. However, from what I've heard on the grapevine, it's not looking good--however, it may still become another 'standard'--that's just a standard due to the huge influence and marketing power behind it--not because it is in any way 'better' than some other development environment.
--Jim

 

[xutopia]

not to answer your question but give you insight, we chose to develope an application on the web. We are using web standards (XHTML, ECMAScript) and we had competition usign an desktop application doing the same thing.

Our application ran on IE4+, and netscape 6 on OS2, Linux, Sun OS, UNIX. The competitor used visual C++ and their application only ran on windows.

Because we didn't use microsoft only products and we were using web standards that opened up to a broad range of platforms with excellent connecitivity we survived and our competitor didn't.

Hope this helps. Gary

http://www.xutopia.com

Haran

 

[garwain]

Q1) I would agree with Jim. It depends on what you want to do. If you want to target anyone, anywhere, on any machine, then the web is the way to go, I don't agree with security though. A web app can be very secure if it's designed right. I will agree that the security take more work though. If you require a lot of processing then a desktop app is probably a better choice or you will need a strong server...

Where I'm currently working, we are developing a desktop system and a web system that work together. The two apps are for different user bases. THe web site is for clients and has some different features, and several features are not available. The web site also has features to help employees when they work from home, but for most of the work, the employees have a lot more features available in the desktop software. Only problem is they can't use it unless they VPN into our network, and even then, with a 56K modem you can hardly do anything...

Really for us to be able to help you decide what to use we would need more details on what your app would be doing (don't give away all the details that could comprimise your companys security... just give us an idea as to what you are trying to do so we can help you.)

Q2) Like Jim, I can't really say since I've never used .net but I have personally vowed to stay away form it. I currently use VB, Perl and PHP, and would like to move more towards PHP simply because I can easily transfer the code from a windows server to a *NIX server without many changes. Same goes with perl.

 

[InfoDan]

Thanks Jim

Q1 - I should clarify, that we are talking about Intranet Apps vs. a Desktop apps, for a environment that we manage, (and perhaps manage not as well as we could).

As, it might be time to swing our company back towards desktop development for applications that demand more flexibility, power, speed, stability and security and are for a known set of users on known hardware.

 

[JimHorton]

Dan,
What I've been seeing is a sort of 'Deja-Vu' with Web apps. With Desktop apps, we used to hear about all sorts of compatibility issues--versioning, setup, OS differences, etc. Then here came Web development tools & languages, most notably Java, which was supposed to solve all that-- "Write once, run everywhere" was the mantra we heard. Well, as I alluded in my first post, that was very far from reality--we've all seen our browsers return messages like "You must be using IE 5.5 or greater to use this" or "Java Script Error--Java not installed" or "The nnnn Plug-in is not installed", etc. etc.

So we're back to the old days of incompatibilities and setup issues--nothing's changed, except that we've lost flexibility, speed, etc. Sheesh, in C++, you could set the compiler to compile for an Alpha, ix86, OS400, and a few other hardware platforms--in my opinion that was alot closer to 'write once run anywhere' than we are now. And all the new 'plug-ins', browser versions, etc, all seemed to be aimed at gaining back the flexibilty and all that stuff, and when it's all said and done, we'll be right back to where we were with desktop apps--flexibility & speed at the price of lost universal compatibility.

And of course what I consider the single most annoying and constraining trait of all--the Single Document Interface of browser apps--I don't see that changing anytime soon--but somewhere someone will come up with a 'standard' for special 'control' to emulate the familiar and highly useful Multiple-document interface common to most Windows apps. And then people will gush that it's such great 'new' technology--but it will only run on, say IE 9.0. Again--back to 1990--we had MDI apps, flexible and all, but only on Windows.

So, in summation, I think that quite obviously the Web is a huge advance and hugely important for so much of what it is used for, but it should never replace standard Windows (or Mac or *nix or whatever) Desktop apps as far as custom applications go.
--Jim