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− | {{comic
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− | | number = 1367
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− | | date = May 12, 2014
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− | | title = Installing
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− | | image = installing.png
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− | | titletext = But still, my scheme for creating and saving user config files and data locally to preserve them across reinstalls might be useful for--wait, that's cookies.
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− | }}
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− | ==Explanation==
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− | This comic refers to the kind of "inventions" which seem new from the point of view of a {{w|smartphone}} (handheld {{w|computer}}) user, but have already been around for a long time on desktop or {{w|laptop}}/notebook computers.
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− | [[Cueball]] has a clever idea to skip the installing of applications on mobile phones: he would host the applications online instead, and provide links to the servers. The apps wouldn't stay on the phone all the time; instead the phone would download each app again every time the user wanted to run it.
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− | However, web pages and {{w|web application}}s already work like this. Clicking a link will make the browser download a web page and render {{w|HTML|HTML code}} and {{w|JavaScript}} that it links to.
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− | The page usually isn't saved long-term on the user's computer; instead the browser downloads it again when needed. {{w|HTML5}} does however offer the option of {{w|Cache_manifest_in_HTML5|caching web application files locally}} so it can remain operational when there is no network connection.
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− | In the title text, Cueball's idea for local application storage already exists in the HTTP protocol as {{w|HTTP cookie|cookies}}. The more flexible {{w|Web storage|web storage}} was originally part of the HTML5 specification, but it's now in a separate specification.
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− | Native phone applications and web applications are not completely interchangeable. Web applications may not allow access to more advanced or platform-specific resources. Projects like {{w|Apache Cordova}} make these resources available to web applications by creating a native application wrapper for the web application.
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− | ==Transcript==
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− | :[Cueball and Megan are standing next to each other.]
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− | :Cueball: Installing things has gotten so fast and painless.
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− | :Cueball: Why not skip it entirely, and make a phone that has every app "installed" already and just downloads and runs them on the fly?
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− | :[Caption below the panel:]
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− | :I felt pretty clever until I realized I'd invented webpages.
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− | {{comic discussion}}
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− | [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
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− | [[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
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− | [[Category:Computers]]
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− | [[Category:Smartphones]]
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