[MACEP] crossing the platform divide

[Aaron Blew]

District wide implementation of any application is a daunting task.
Enterprise wide application deployments are made much easier if they're
web based.  Not only does it allow you to access it from anywhere in the
world where you've got an internet connection, but you're able to avoid
a lot of platform specific issues you can run into when writing a client
side application.

There are caveats with web applications though.  The biggest I see is
the user interface.  By nature, web applications don't usually have the
same flexibility as normal desktop applications, but fortunately this is
starting to become less of an issue with the emergence of coding ideals
like Ajax
(http://www.adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/000385.php).  

For a good example of the power this gives a web developer, check out
Google maps (http://maps.google.com) or Google Suggest
(http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en).  For example, as you
type in your search query into Google Suggest, it goes and gets search
results seamlessly as you're typing.  Google Maps lets you scroll around
the map with your arrow keys while it pulls in more map data
automatically.  This is a big step forward for web applications.

-Aaron

---
Aaron Blew
PHP Programmer and Network Infrastructure Administrator
Jackson County School District #6
(541)494-6902
aaron.blew at district6.org
 
"We want to create puppets that pull their own strings."
-- Ann Marion
 

-----Original Message-----
From: macep-bounces at macep.net [mailto:macep-bounces at macep.net] On Behalf
Of Tim Chase
Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2005 10:04 AM
To: macep at macep.net
Subject: [MACEP] crossing the platform divide



I've enjoyed reading the Mac-PC debate with interest, particularly so
since 
I consider myself to be a recent convert.

I appreciated the comment about techno-transparency, because I've
certainly 
seen that to be true in this school.  I'm on a PC, but my students use
Macs 
and some teachers use Macs.  But
1. we all speak to the DHCP server and
2. we all login to the file server and
3. our site tech can use VNC to remotely administrate all our computers
and
4. a CD burned on my computer will run on theirs and vice versa and so
on 
and so forth.

The primary difficulties in having a diverse OS landscape come when you
try 
to implement something district-wide, I think.  Actually I would love to

get some feedback from techies who gnash their teeth at the thought of
dual 
schools: can you give a short list of the difficulties that it presents?
~Tim
_______________________
Tim Chase
Technology & Language Arts
LaPine Middle School
(541) 536-5967 x114 

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