In the Spotlight - Nicholas Eddy

Beyond The Browser: Higher Abstractions to Enable Rich, Easy Development

This presentation will look at the use of new technology that enabled developers to create sophisticated web applications with unprecedented control over rendering, the event model and abstraction. Current frameworks smooth out inconsistencies between browsers to allow cross-platform development, but none provide developers with capabilities to develop in higher abstractions. My discussion would focus on how this new tech allows developers to create rich applications with complete control over look-and-feel without ever dealing with elements or browser events directly. This means applications created using these design principles can be written once to run everywhere. In addition, developers can have control over domains that have traditionally been owned by the browser, like scrollbars, mouse and keyboard/focus handling. Developers are able to create completely unrestrained applications when giving this level of control. Designers have more control since applications can be skinned on a deeper level than currently available. UI developers are now able to complete change look-and-feel (change DOM structure freely) without ever consulting an application developer.