At some point recently, the browser transformed from being an awesome interactive document viewer into being the world’s most advanced, widely-distributed application runtime.
This is the key sentence in the article and this is why I was motivated to become a web developer. Recently someone asked me if I felt like I was missing out by doing most of my programming on the web since desktop apps are "real programming" and I said no because the web is the best environment for writing apps today. I don't have to choose whether I want to write for Mac OS which I use myself, or Windows which most consumers use or Linux which hardcore techies use. I don't have to choose if my mobile app is iOS or Android first. Sure there are still tradeoffs, and sometimes a desktop or native mobile app is still going to be a good choice. But the browser today is an amazing environment that everyone on the web has access to and it's only getting better. And we should be excited about leveraging everything modern browsers can do to make great software.
That key sentence is at least half wrong. The „most advanced“ part at least.
And web was never the best environment for writing apps. And it never will be. It's like hoping to transform the fork into the spoon. I have spent one and a half decades in it, and it may be becoming bearable environment, but far far from the best. Unless it's the only thing you know, then it is the best by definition.
Maybe we're reading that sentence differently? I read it as "the most widely distributed runtime that is also relatively advanced." I took it as a given that Tom Dale does not believe the web is the most advanced programming environment.
This is the key sentence in the article and this is why I was motivated to become a web developer. Recently someone asked me if I felt like I was missing out by doing most of my programming on the web since desktop apps are "real programming" and I said no because the web is the best environment for writing apps today. I don't have to choose whether I want to write for Mac OS which I use myself, or Windows which most consumers use or Linux which hardcore techies use. I don't have to choose if my mobile app is iOS or Android first. Sure there are still tradeoffs, and sometimes a desktop or native mobile app is still going to be a good choice. But the browser today is an amazing environment that everyone on the web has access to and it's only getting better. And we should be excited about leveraging everything modern browsers can do to make great software.