Question

I am going to write a database application for the camp I work for. I am thinking about writing it in C# with a Windows GUI interface but using a browser as the application is seeming more and more appelaing for various reasons. What I am wondering is why someone would not choose to write an application as a web application. Ex. The back button can cause you some trouble. Are there other things that ayone can think of?

Answer 1

There are plenty of cons:

• Speed and responsiveness tend to be significantly worse
• Complicated UI widgets (such as tree controls) are harder to do
• Rendering graphics of any kind is pretty tricky, 3D graphics is even harder
• You have to mess around with logins
• A centralised server means clients always need network access
• Security restrictions may cause you trouble
• Browser incompatibilities can cause a lot of extra work
• UI conventions are less well-defined on the web – users may find it harder to use
• Client-side storage is limited

The question is.. do enough of those apply to your project to make web the wrong choice?