Yeah, this is why everybody clicks on the comments link first.
I'm not intending to dismiss him outright; he may have an interesting follow-up. I guess I'm just much more optimistic about the web than he seems to be, and more critical of everything that's come before than he seems to be. I think Mike is about the same age as me, and probably has a similarly long history in tech, so I can't really pull the "hard-earned wisdom and experience" card in this conversation. I think I just disagree with him on this, and that's not a big deal.
One of us might be right. (But, I think betting against the web is crazy.)
If the article is right that it is close to impossible to hire a Web developer that understands all Web security issues and knows to mitigate them, it does not come as a surprise that there is fierce criticism to the article. It basically says you are doing a hopeless job and your employers' business model is flawed.
I'm not a Web developer, but I find the article very convincing. From what I follow headlines Web programming changes very quickly and the frameworks change all the time. Meaning that smart people are not happy with what is available, writing new stuff. Yet I don't think security has been the primary driver for any new framework. They are still parsing text. So let's see whether the author has any fundamentally different approach in his next post (if anybody remembers to read it)
Disclaimer: I work in embedded and our company advertises to be very secure. I know that our security sucks.
I have myself developed GUI application using author's beloved C++ and Qt and I can admit its a far better designed and convenient experience compared to the web, but it's hardly possible to achieve the same amount of flexibility in UI/UX design that is available on the Web. I think the fact that things are changing so fast, standards are badly designed (at least initially) and there are so many inconsistencies are all only because web is a fast moving platform that requires the consensus of many players to happen and move forward. Also the amount of commercial interest and developers working on the web is incomparable to other platforms, hence the fast moving nature.
If you take advantage of that flexibility to create a UX that's very different from the standard widgets, it's likely to be inaccessible to blind users with screen readers. Check out this rant on HN from a blind friend of mine (a few paragraphs in for the part that's most relevant to this thread):
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14580342
As far as I know, the most accessible cross-platform UI toolkit for the desktop is SWT. It uses native widgets for most things, and actually gasp implements the host platforms' accessibility APIs for the custom widgets. But, I can hear it now, somebody will say they hate SWT-based applications because they wreak of Windows 95. Oh well, fashion trumps all, I guess.
But even Google knew not to depend on the universality of web apps on mobile - they have native apps for both Android and iOS. Aren’t we already at a tipping point where most web access is done on mobile devices?
Edit: Ok, maybe I could have predicted that lines like "HTML 5 is a plague on our industry" would ruffle some feathers. I guess I like a little snark in my criticism.
Fwiw, long live the web. It's imperfect, but it's open. I'll take chaotic freedom to tight control any day.
FWIW, I'd take tight control if it was in pursuit of humanitarian values, such as accessibility for people with disabilities, rather than a company's bottom line. The chaotic freedom of the Web isn't very good for accessibility. Yes, yes, accessibility is possible, but in practice, very often it doesn't happen. See this rant on HN from a blind friend of mine (yes, the same one I posted elsewhere on the thread, but it drives the point of this comment home):
