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Sun Microsystems Laboratories
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Mashware:
The Future of
Web Applications
Antero Taivalsaari
TECHNICAL REPORT
Sun Labs
16 Network Circle
Menlo Park, CA 94025
Mashware:
The Future of Web Applications
Antero Taivalsaari
SMLI TR-2009-181 February 2009
Abstract:
The massive popularity of the World Wide Web is turning the web browser from a document
viewing tool into a general-purpose host platform for various types of services, including desk
-
top-style web applications. Web applications require no installation or manual upgrades, and
they can be deployed instantly worldwide.This instant worldwide deployment aspect is incredi
-
bly powerful, and will dramatically change the way people develop and use software, allowing
worldwide application development and instant deployment without middlemen or distributors.
In this paper we present our vision for the future of web applications. A key observation in the
paper is that web applications do not have to live by the same constraints that characterized
the evolution of conventional desktop applications.The ability to instantly publish software
worldwide, and the ability to dynamically combine code and content available from countless
web sites and developers all over the planet will open up entirely new possibilities for software
development. We believe that this will lead to a new software development approach that can
be referred to as mashware, or software as a mashup. In this paper we provide an introduction
to mashware, analyze the emerging mashup development technologies, as well as discuss the
technical challenges and obstacles that still remain.
email address:
antero taivalsaari@sun.com
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Mashware: The Future of Web Applications
Antero Taivalsaari
antero.taivalsaari@sun.com
Sun Microsystems Laboratories
P.O. Box 553 (TUT)
FI-33101 Tampere, Finland
1. Paradigm Shift
The software industry is currently experiencing a major disruption. In the past few years, the World
Wide Web has become the de facto deployment environment for new software systems and
applications. Software applications that were previously targeted to specific operating systems, CPU
architectures or devices, are now written for the Web, to be used from web browsers from all over the
world. A typical example of this trend is iExpense, Sun's new web-based expense reporting application
that is now used by Sun's employees worldwide. Outside Sun, there are numerous examples such as
Google Docs, Desktoptwo.com, Microsoft Live Mesh, NetSuite.com, Salesforce.com, Webex.com, or
various web-based e-mail and instant messaging clients. The recent release of Google's Chrome web
browser (http://www.google.com/chrome) – specifically designed to enable the efficient execution of
web applications in the web browser – also confirms this trend.
Web applications have major benefits. In particular, they require no installation or manual upgrades,
and they can be deployed and shared instantly worldwide, with no middlemen or distributors. This
instant worldwide deployment aspect is extremely powerful and will dramatically change the way
people develop, deploy and use software. Ultimately, it will cause a paradigm shift in the software
industry – in the same fashion as the Web has already transformed the sharing and distribution of
documents, books, photos, music, videos and so many other artifacts. Ordinary computer users will
eventually run the majority of software from the Web, instead of using conventional, binary, desktop-
bound applications. The long-term implications of this paradigm shift will be at least as significant as
the dramatic transformations that are currently taking place in the entertainment and publishing
industries.
2. Evolution of the World Wide Web – from Web Pages to Web Applications
The World Wide Web has undergone a number of evolutionary phases. Initially, web pages were
simple textual documents with limited user interaction capabilities based on hyperlinks. Soon, graphics
support and form-based data entry were added. Gradually, with the introduction of DHTML – the
combination of HTML, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), the JavaScript™ scripting language, and the
Document Object Model (DOM) – it became possible to create increasingly interactive web pages with
built-in support for advanced graphics and animation. Numerous plug-in components – such as Flash,
RealPlayer and Shockwave – were then introduced to make it possible to build web pages with visually
rich, interactive multimedia content.
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