Web Browser as Platform

by Lowell Rapaport

Since the end of the browser wars, one of the concepts that fell by the wayside was the use of the Web browser as a platform for applications. On Windows machines, for example, Internet Explorer is less a platform than it is an assemblage of HTTP services that can be accessed by any application running under Windows. Other browsers fare less well, offering only Javascript to provide application-like functionality. The lack of a browser application platform has limited what developers can do with embedded browsers and Web appliances.

Buried within the open-source browser Mozilla is XML User Interface Language (XUL, pronounced zool). XUL provides the tools needed to build applications directly on a browser. The advantage is that Web applications always work, no matter what kind of hardware platform a user is working from.

XUL's chief competition is Java. Although less well developed than Java, XUL is based on XML and may have greater ease in deploying Web Services and other XML-based protocols. In addition, there is no server component to XUL; it runs entirely within a browser client and may work better in peer-to-peer environments.