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build-the-mobile-web-you-want.md

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"Build the Mobile Web You Want" by Kate Hudson

(video)

  • "The web is broken" -- mobile is becoming the first & dominant method people use
    • Expected features: performant UI, seamless auth/security (typically email confirmations for the web), works with offline/intermittent network, device/OS integration (camera, push) comparison between web and native of expected features
    • Web browsers are getting better, but native has the advantage. Concede defeat?
  • Remember that in 2004, making a JS/Ajax app was not a thing, and even criticized. Gmail was the killer app -- a "hack".
  • Proposal: "It is time to hack."
  • First Level of Hack
    • Test new browser features before their time (e.g. service workers).
    • Transpile
    • Polyfill
  • Second Level of Hack: Build new abstractions
    • Create DOM abstractions/augmentations (e.g. React, Famous).
    • Create things that don't exist on the web (e.g. filer.js).
  • Third Level of Hack: Blow shit up -- hack the user agent
    • Build hybrid apps (e.g. with Cordova).
    • Results of android testing in Kenya, India, and similar countries
      • Problems
        • poor offline experience
        • mem leaks in long-lived processes
        • UI performance
        • Android <4.4 stock browser is horrible
      • Have the app use an embedded WebView or Crosswalk
      • Expose custom Java interfaces to JS. In the example app:
        • moved the apps's Router, SharedPreferences into Java
        • saved app state in Java; React hooks into it
        • exposes device integration (camera, offline caching, gestures) to JS

"Build the web you want". Really good engineering is finding adequate solutions to problems that matter in a way that someone in the future can understand and improve on.