Chapter 4. The Desktop Web
The rest of this book covers support and features for all browsers, both desktop and mobile. In the first three chapters, we talked about mobile browsers and what it takes to build a mobile web app. For the desktop, things are getting better in terms of supporting HTML5 and what this book defines as HTML5e. Comparing Table 4-1 to Table 2-2 in Chapter 2, you can see that support for the five core frameworks is exactly the same, if not better, in desktop browsers. Because of this, we can feel comfortable bringing HTML5 into our production applications today.
Table 4-1. HTML5 Enterprise (HTML5e)
Browser | Geolocation | WebSocket | Web Storage | Device Orientation | Web Workers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Safari 5+ | Yes | Yes | Yes | Unknown | Yes |
Chrome 19+ | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
IE 10+ | Yes | Yes | Yes | Unknown | Yes |
Opera 12+ | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Firefox 12+ | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Of course, you will notice some differences in support. For example, Device Orientation may not make a lot of sense for desktop browsers, but it is supported in Chrome and Firefox browsers.
Warning
Although Geolocation does not fall under HTML5, I am including it under HTML5e because of its value to modern web apps and its wide support in most browsers.
The Browser as a Platform
To some, server-side UI frameworks, which automatically generate JavaScript, CSS, and HTML, are the saviors of enterprise development. To others, those UI frameworks create a massive bottleneck and tie you to stale ideas and structures.
Today, developers are forced ...