A New Kind of UI: Firefox + Java

The User Interface (UI) is undergoing drastic changes, more rapidly in first half of 2005 than ever before. It is primarily driven by the new class of web applications dubbed "Web 2.0". A sampling of these class of applications can be found in this compendium maintained by K. Paul Mallasch. Web applications have become tools that not only have become indespensible, but have become pervasive. Have you ever felt like a fish out of water when an web site like Google or Bloglines was inaccessible? What would happen if a user could easily compose these web applications themselves?

"Integration at the glass", UI composition at the client side or late binding an application at the edge of the network. It is in the direction of computing's quest for the holy grail, that is "recombinant computing". Interestingly enough, Firefox is at the forefront of this revolution. GreaseMonkey although not the first but one of the most compelling enabler of this class of application. The ever growing list of GreaseMonkey scripts is completely stunning. It is clear and present evidence that the Web as we know it is changing in drastic ways.

Unfortunately, for all intents and purposes most of the "integration at the glass" work is done using Javascript. Java is no where to be found except for possibly renegated to the back end server. The prevalent use of XMLHTTPRequest object and Flash has quickly extinguished the need for Java in the client for developing Rich Internet Applications (RIA). A lot of the exiting action today has been in the AJAX space, where javascripters have been stretching their skills and flexing their new found muscle. There is in fact an emerging trend that creating a killer app is influenced more by its usability and its aesthetics than its technical prowess.

The little consolation a Java developer has is that by virtue of Eclipse, Java has once again regained undesputed dominance in the tools space. However, the fact remains, when tools require social connectivity then Java as a technology is hard to be found.

All hope is not lost, salvation can be found in a Piggy Bank. Two years ago there was a lot of promise in an SWT based application called Haystack. It has a lot of novel ideas revolving around the ideas of consolidating our information spaces. Unfortunately, it remained a research prototype that was barely usable on a daily real world basis.

Piggy Bank has followed up on that work and created an environment more inline with the times. It's Firefox on steriods. If this video depicts Firefox, then I'm at a loss of imagination as to what Piggy Bank would look like. PiggyBank allows one to write an XPCOM component in Java. It allows one to leverage the massive set of Java libraries in existence and apply them at the edge of the network. Power tools not confined to the server, but available at the client side.

OutFoxed is an explosive combination of integration at the glass and social networking. It's an example of what's possible with this kind of technology. Fortunately, with Piggy Bank, the power source once more resides with the Java developer. The same Java server side technology that you may have used to write your web application has now migrated from the backend and now into the client. A surprising twist of events.