Hi Michael,

Thanks for raising this question. This seems to be a real challenge that every web developer has to face, sooner or later, as new technology took place. If you're targetting tablet and mobile apps, HTML5 might sound to be the right path, although there are few things to consider.

One of the major problems with HTML5 is its undetermined specification working scope. As stated in the W3C site, the current HTML5 stage is still far from complete as it hasn't even reach the Candidate Recommendation stage. In reality, you will find a lot of inconsistencies and incompatibilities in each browser's implementation. Not to mention other annoying issues such as relying on vendor-specific prefix for CSS3 implementation which is currently in heavy debate, see this post.

The other consideration is whether your apps will require the utilization of mobile hardware-specific API. In such case, native app seems to be more ideal as it gives you full access to the hardware, say, the camera, accelerometer, etc.

Finally, to answer your question, I'm afraid there's no such thing of "one size fits it all" in cross-devices development. Even with HTML5, you might have to create several version of pages/layout that target each device separately. That's because each device type has different size and your app needs to be designed in a way that displays best in each device. That's also probably the same reason why Twitter, Facebook, Evernote, etc, created each version for each different device.

Nevertheless, we are watching closely on the maturity of HTML5 development and the possible use in the mobile -- and jump in when it's about the time.

Let me know if you have other thoughts or feedback.

Best,
Jimmy

Thanks for your response, Jimmy. Very helpful.

At this time, I don't need to utilize mobile-specific API so native apps would be a low priority.

I can see how I might need to design HTML5 layouts for different sizes (desktop, tablet and mobile).

I hestitate to deal with different browser implementations of HTML5. I might take the "lowest common denominator" approach to design. In other words, use the features of HTML5 that are common in all of the major browsers.

Would be nice to have a tool that helps me design for different layout sizes (desktop, table and mobile, etc).

I really like what you've done with ClientUI and the way that accessibility is baked in. That's really excellent. If Silverlight was the future for public websites, ClientUI would've been my first choice. If I was developing internal line of business websites, then ClientUI is an excellent choice. But since I'm developing for a public website, ClientUI/Silverlight was my first choice until Microsoft's message on Silverlight started to get muddled, especially when no plugins will be allowed in Windows 8, which includes not allowing Silverlight unless I've misunderstood).

If and when you do create a tool for HTML5, please bake in accessibility. It's the right thing to do.

 

Hi Michael,

Thanks for your valuable feedback!

The statement of "no plugins will be allowed in Windows 8" appears to be only partially correct. Windows 8 will continue to support plugins in the Desktop mode. So the "no plugin" context applies only to the Metro mode. This, however, is still in speculation in the current stage. There have been rumors that Microsoft might make their way to exceptionally support Silverlight in Metro mode, although they may have no intentions to support any other plug-ins. This is possible since MS has been making more exceptions on the Metro, for example, Office 15 will exceptionally support Metro eventhough its codebase is originally built for Desktop mode. So let's wait and see their next move.

Best,
Jimmy