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Vision: Web-centric Computation. Today’s Web: a popular computer application ... along with desktop publishing, graphics, spreadsheets, databases, CAD, ... Tomorrow’s Web: a uniform medium for access to services... ...including desktop publishing, graphics, spreadsheets, databases, CAD,.
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Vision: Web-centric Computation • Today’s Web: a popular computer application ... along with desktop publishing, graphics, spreadsheets, databases, CAD, ... • Tomorrow’s Web: a uniform medium for access to services... • ...includingdesktop publishing, graphics, spreadsheets, databases, CAD, ...
New Powerpoint Feature: Microsoft’s Content Wizard will prepare your entire talk! Asia Talk Web-centric PC... Steve’sStartup Page • Miscellaneous • My stock portfolio • Munich Trip • Textbook I’m writing • Logicsimulations • CURLhacking • TaxReporting • Photography Talks Books CURL Paper
Technology barriers - Interaction barriers - Skill barriers Function C++, ActiveX,... JAVA Programs Text, Pictures Applets TCL, JavaScript Scripts Evolution involves hill climbing along this curve… Discontinuities discourage it! HTML Sophistication
Alternative: The Gentle Slope...Evolutionary path for accessible tools • CURL (MIT LCS): single language supporting • • HTML-like formatted hypertext • • Author/programmer semantic continuum • • Efficient, native-compiled mobile code • • Mobile, extensible type system for metadata Function Sophistication
Web-centric user view • Web Interaction Model replaces • Software installation (dynamically imported) • “Applications” • File system interaction (transparent caches) • Local/Remote distinctions • Manuals/documentation • Windows 95! Config.sys. Install/Uninstall. FAT filesys. Remote mounts. Software updates. Registry. … … ...
Obstacles & Issues • 1. Technical: can a coherent web environment support authors, programmers, developers? • 2. Business: do industrial interests promote web-centric evolution? • 3. Economic: Can current economic models survive the communication revolution?
Partitioned Community... Developers Bill & Jim Programmers Many of US. Authors People who actually have something to say.
Technology Pressures • New Communication level: driving forces • Function: assimilation of applications • Automatization of content consumption • Semantic coherence: • consistent language interface over content/scripting/programming communities • “Groupware” cooperative environments • Promising approaches: • Metadata? Objects? • Code mobility: security, transparency • What will emerge as the Lingua Franca of the web?
Automatization: Content Extraction • Today: Sophisticated Curl user: • • Builds get-quote primitive which automates consumption of some particular web content • • Might use extract-html, provided by an even more sophisticated user: {define {get-quote name:symbol}:float {extract-html x:float {get-url {append “www.quote.com/qs/SYM=“ name}} {table ...} {table ... {row “Last” x ...} ...} ...} Eventually: server provides typed CURL stock object
Alternative: The Gentle Slope...Evolutionary path for accessible tools • CURL: a single language supporting • • HTML-like formatted hypertext • • Author/programmer semantic continuum • • Efficient, native-compiled mobile code • • Mobile, extensible type system for metadata Function Sophistication
CURL: A Gentle-Slope Language for the WebEvolutionary path for accessible tools • Steve Ward & David Kranz • MIT Lab for Computer Science • • HTML-like formatted hypertext • • Author/programmer semantic continuum • • Efficient, native-compiled mobile code • • Mobile, extensible type system for metadata Function Sophistication