Application 2.0 musings

Web 2.0 is interesting, the idea of having services available across the net... cute, but what I really want is App 2.0. In App 2.0, we still do things in a document centric manner, or perhaps a task-centric manner. The main improvements are more along the lines of user interaction.
A good "app 2.0" application does a few things differently:

• Always show the path of the current document


• Never permit a user to start work if there isn't an autosave method up and running


• If the path becomes unavailable, ask the user what they want to do about it immediately


• Support RESTfull paths


• Disconnection is a fact of life, NEVER lose work because of it

There's no reason for closing a web browser to lose information with AJAX. There is no reason why an application can't keep its state stored on the server, where it belongs. Closing the wrong browser window should never lead to a trail of tears.

Windows applications are no better. It's especially gaulling when a Windows Application with 200 Gigabytes free can't be bothered to save an hour or two of typing in a few places.

This is the 21st Century... don't lose my work any more!

--Mike--
Reposted as a test, November 9, 2005