AppCache post-mortem?

Hi,

As already identified, getting the Web platform in a state where making
Web apps work offline is a critical component of making it a credible
alternative to native apps.

It used to be argued that AppCache was the solution to this; yet, it is
now reasonably clear that it was an unsatisfactory solution and there is
ongoing work on providing a more satisfactory one.

While I'm hoping that new work will progress quickly (and hopefully we
will provide additional resources to make that true), I wonder if anyone
would be interested to work on a post-mortem of what went wrong with
AppCache, not at the technology level, but at the platform level.

The goal is not to distribute blame to specific people or organizations,
but rather to find where we are structurally ill-prepared to deal with
providing such fundamental technologies.

Such a post-mortem would answer for example the following questions:
* why has it taken so long between the introduction of the technology
(2007) and realization it was deeply broken (2011?)? What approaches
would make this problem less likely to repeat?

* why has it taken almost 2 years since that "realization" and the
appearance of alternative proposals? 

* does it reflect a broader desktop-focused approach to the development
of Web technologies?

Any takers? I think Tobie, Robin or Jonas would be particularly well
informed on this, but maybe someone less involved in the process of
fixing the situation would also bring a useful perspective.

Dom

Received on Wednesday, 17 April 2013 09:07:47 UTC