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On the Web Platform Cornucopia

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Book cover Web Engineering (ICWE 2019)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 11496))

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Abstract

The evolution of the Web browser has been organic, with new features introduced on a pragmatic basis rather than following a clear rational design. This evolution has resulted in a cornucopia of overlapping features and redundant choices for developing Web applications. These choices include multiple architecture and rendering models, different communication primitives and protocols, and a variety of local storage mechanisms. In this position paper we examine the underlying reasons for this historic evolution. We argue that without a sound engineering approach and some fundamental rethinking there will be a growing risk that the Web may no longer be a viable, open software platform in the long run.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://stateofjs.com/.

  2. 2.

    See for example the controversial decisions to provide standard support for Digital Rights Management in clear conflict with the Open Web Principle [6].

  3. 3.

    https://extensiblewebmanifesto.org/.

  4. 4.

    http://html5-overview.net/.

  5. 5.

    Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_wars in fact lists three separate browser wars (1995–2001, 2004–2018, 2018-present).

  6. 6.

    https://www.adobe.com/fi/products/flashplayer.html.

  7. 7.

    https://www.w3.org/.

  8. 8.

    https://whatwg.org/.

  9. 9.

    https://dzone.com/articles/w3c-vs-whatwg-html5-specs.

  10. 10.

    http://www.khronos.org/webgl/.

  11. 11.

    https://www.opengl.org/.

  12. 12.

    https://jquery.com/.

  13. 13.

    https://github.com/dunglas/mercure.

  14. 14.

    https://cssinjs.org/.

  15. 15.

    https://webvr.info/.

  16. 16.

    https://immersive-web.github.io/webxr/.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Tommi Mikkonen

  2. USI, Lugano, Switzerland

    Cesare Pautasso

  3. Tampere University, Tampere, Finland

    Kari Systä

  4. Nokia Bell Labs, Tampere, Finland

    Antero Taivalsaari

Authors
  1. Tommi Mikkonen
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  2. Cesare Pautasso
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  3. Kari Systä
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  4. Antero Taivalsaari
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tommi Mikkonen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Novosibirsk State Technical University, Novosibirsk, Russia

    Maxim Bakaev

  2. Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Flavius Frasincar

  3. Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Korea (Republic of)

    In-Young Ko

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Mikkonen, T., Pautasso, C., Systä, K., Taivalsaari, A. (2019). On the Web Platform Cornucopia. In: Bakaev, M., Frasincar, F., Ko, IY. (eds) Web Engineering. ICWE 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11496. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19274-7_25

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19274-7_25

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-19273-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-19274-7

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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