15 Years of WebApps in JavaScript

15 years ago on January 23, 1996, HTMLjive - an HTML editor written in JavaScript was release. It is considered the first serious JavaScript program. In short order, it went viral, was on websites around the world and translated into several languages.

HTMLjive was a simple HTML editor but it incorporated a preview window, three modes of HTML coding and on-screen help. The inline HTML editors, like the one I'm using right now to write this blog, have added features, but HTMLjive had the basic features you take for granted today.

I am often asked, "Did you expected JavaScript application (web apps) to become popular?" Yes. Shortly after HTMLjive was released, I starting writing the book "Using JavaScript" with several co-authors. One of my great memories is giving an author talk called "JavaScript Makes Your Site An Application" at a local book store a few months later. So, absolutely.

The community that supports JavaScript has come a long way since. Brendan Eich, father of JavaScript, has received the recognition he deserves. Douglas Crockford gave us JSON and is the JavaScript evangelist. Ajax pushed the language back into popularity and Google showed what could be done with Google Maps and Gmail. Now the annual JSconf features the greatest advances, technologies and speakers. Most of the people that deserve a mention for their contributions to the community were or are speakers at JSconfs.

JavaScript is no longer just for the browser. My web apps, both mobile and desktop, have JavaScript on both the browser with libraries like jquery and on the server with couchdb and node.js. Thank you to the community. It continues to be a joy to code in JS because of you.

Dave's plan to rethink RSS has potential. I've always liked the simple concept of title, link, description (text) and categories. Making a RESTful, JSON API would be great. I've been dabbling towards that with a project I've been working on that started with Zlides.com and OPML combined with JQuery Mobile. So I've been giving this some thought.
Dave likes Twitter. The Twitter API is proven itself and lessons have been learned. Lots of people know it. So my comments below reflect my usage of the Twitter API, particularly the search API.

1. JSONP. The ReallySimple API should support JSONP. The primary benefit is cross-domain support so I can write browers apps hosted on any site and use the reallysimple.org api. This would make it much easier to write mobile apps using JavaScript, HTML5 and CSS. For an example, look at the Twitter Search wiki and how they support JSONP. Also look a jquery's support for JSONP.
2. Categories. RSS has always supported categories and I was rather suprised not to see them in the API. Much of web 2.0 worked leveraged categoris and I think it is an important addition.
3. RESTful. Several people have commented on using the RESTful verbs. I certainly support that for GET and POST but since DELETE and PUT are harder to implement there should be more discussion of that.
   
4. Extending Really Simple. RSS supports namespaces and there should be someway to extend the Really Simple api. Steve Moyer commented about having extra fields like _rev in the API. In my view, extra fields would be fine but probably ignored by most clients. It would probably be better to suppress them, but in some implementations there are cases were the extra fields would add a feature. More discussion needed.
5. getPost. Given an idPost, I would want to get the JSON for just that post. The id could be the permalink. And perhaps, maybe I supply a link and get back an array of posts which could be all of the comments made to a post.
6. Enclosure. Very encouraged to see it supported. Important in this world of videos, photo blogs and other media files.
7. OAuth. Twitter and others have moved away from basic authentication for a reason. I would suggest supporting OAuth like twitter.
   
8. No date. The format of title, description and link is so powerful that it applies to more than just reverse chronological blogs. The web content management system (CMS) that I wrote had RSS feeds as its foundation. [I'll have to add the ReallySimple API to it.]  And see example of Wikipedia below. However, I would think that this might be an expected field. Or perhaps it is better to ignore it for right now given the discussion that will start about date format.
   

ReallySimple maps to ReallySimple HTML pages as well. It supports title, link, description and hopefully category. This also maps directly to standard Web 1.0 content web pages where one HTML page contains content on a subject. For example, this Wikipedia page on Daly Languages has a title and obviously a link. The content is inside the body tag, less the navigation, footers and banners. Categories in the metadata and displayed on the page. So I should be able to take the primary content of this page and easily put it into a JSON message using the ReallySimple fields. Lots of features could be built off having an entire page in JSON.

I look forward to using the ReallySimple API with mobile apps and Couchdb apps.

Cross posted from: http://raydaly.posterous.com/really-simple-api-first-comments

Recommended Beers of 2010

This was a great year for beer in Northern Virginia. Full Sail is now distributed and Great Divide's beers are more widely available. Also, Bob Tupper got back into business after a few years of dryness. Finally, Church Key opened a few block from my office in DC. Hope you have a chance to try some of these beers this year.

Great Divide - Collette   This is a special. Grab as much as you can when you see it. I spent a night driving from store to store buying everything that was left. The focus on this beer is not the hops, but the yeast. It is a different taste. This is a farm house ale with yeast in the bottle. My friends laugh at me because my pours end up with overflowing heads. Great in the spring or summer. We had it the other night with Raclette and it was excellent.

Great Divide - Titan IPA We first discovered this perfect IPA from Great Divide before the Collete. It is great when a brewery makes a beer so good that you want to try everything that they produce. The balance in the IPA between the hops is totally refreshing and not overwhelming like others fighting the hop wars. I'm never disappointed when pulling one of these out of the fridge.

Appalacian - Hoppy Trails IPA  This IPA made me really appreciate the IPA style. It made be go back and try some others again like Full Sail. The semi-high alcohol punch of an IPA has to be balanced with a strong hoppy flavor supported by a robust malt. A regular in my fridge.

Tupper's Hop Pocket Ale  Bob Tupper introduced me to so many different beers at the Brick. I was thrilled when Old Dominion started brewing his Ale because I knew he liked Celebration Ale. This was my friend's favorite until Tupper pulled it from Old Dominion. After a long hiatus, Bob found a brewery and his Ale is back. Dominion did a better job, but still wonderful to have it back.

Schlafly - Christmas Ale Normally this spot would be reserved for Sierra Nevada's Celebration Ale. But this spot opened up this year because of the disastrous change in the recipe. But Schlfly's might have made it anyway. The hint of orange made it a wonderful taste in a full ale for the season. I recommended it to everyone in my annual Christmas Beer tasting this year.

Heavy Seas - Winter Storm I've enjoyed this for the past several Christmas seasons. It is now my favorite Christmas ale with a great Extra Special Bitter flavor. I'll stock up this ale. Nearly a perfect cold night brew to warm your bones. Arrg!

Breckenridge - Extra ESB I love ESBs. My favorite was Fredrick's Red Ale, but that is now defunct. Had another great one in New Orleans about 10 years ago. It is so hard to find a good one, nevertheless a perfect one. Breckenridge's is not perfect but better than good. It is amazingly consistent. ESBs can be so smooth. I keep this one around.

Full Sail - Pale Ale. About 20 years ago at the Brickskeller the bartender introduced me to Full Sail Ale and Red Seal Ale. They were mana from heaven. They would be my first request when walking down those stairs and seeing all the cans. But distribution stopped and I finally gave up the search. I had to visit the brewery when in Oregon but never expected to see it back on the East Coast. This was the great surprise of the year. And try their IPA as well. Both wonderful.

Full Sail - Session Found this at a bar and have stocked up with both the regular and the dark Session. It comes in a Red Stripe like bottle and is a tasty lager with only 4% alcohol.  Often I don't need the full IPA punch so this is a tasty alternative. Expect it to be a regular this summer.

Bell's - Oberon  Our summer beer for the past few summers. I cannot help but think about a warm summer day and the pleasant taste of this wheat beer. You know summer has arrived when Oberon is on the shelves.  Coming again soon.