[science-iwg] web Re: e3 or e4

["Kasemir, Kay" <kasemirk@xxxxxxxx>]

Hi:

> Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2016 10:14:35 -0400
> From: Jay Jay Billings <jayjaybillings@xxxxxxxxx>
> 
> FWIW, on ICE and EAVP we're looking at the future being through web
> interfaces, not the e3 or e4 workbench. We are breaking ICE into "Mark II"
> (2.x) and "Mark III" lines, where the former is a hybrid e3/e4 workbench
> and the latter has an entirely web base UI. If any of its parts end up
> being "back-ported," then it will be through an SWT Browser widget.

I agree that web is great for end users. Like most people I love Amazon, eBay, trello, google docs.
But implementing web clients in html+css+javascript is tedious, especially the javascript part
when lack of compile-time type checking combines with nuances of different browsers.

If there’s a huge user base, it’s worth biting the bullet and investing into the web development.
But science tools have a comparably small audience.
For a tool that’s used on a few beamlines, we can do quite a good job in Eclipse RCP and install it on the beam line.
Developing the same as a web app, I think, would take a lot longer. OK, once it’s done, anybody with a web browser could use it, to scaling from 10 to 10000 beam lines would be trivial. But we don’t have that many ;-)

Have you identified promising tools/technologies for an ICE web UI?

Thanks,
Kay