Microsoft and SOUI?
SOUI describes a development approach that fully separates UI and backend, whereby the UI is downloaded at application startup and then makes independent service calls to the backend. It completely deconstructs server assisted MVC (which is 99% of web development today) and repositions the View and Controller in the UI with the Model staying server side.
This is what we do at APPLEBOX. As a JavaScript nutter I was using the term Serverless AJAX, but soon discovered SOUI and SOFEA where becoming de rigueur terms amongst the server side noddies of the Java World.
SOUI sounds great to me! So I whacked it in my google alerts to track it’s evolution, and hey-presto .. it’s just popped up in this ppt presentation at the 2008 Microsoft Architect Insight Conference on “The Future of IT”. Looks like the presenter, Michael Barker has a background in J2EE .. but good to see he’s out there trying to educate the Microsofties.
I think SOUI is a brilliant way to develop rich web apps like APPLEBOX, but I think the push for adoption has got to come from the JavaScript frameworks out there .. prototype/dojo/yui/ext.js and so on. Appcelerant looks interesting (although I don’t know what’s up with their http://apptunes.appspot.com/ demo as it continually hangs firefox & safari on OS X) but the afore mentioned frameworks embody a massive number of web developers out there who are ready to jump on the next big thing. If SOUI is to catch on, it’s gotta be driven by these guys.