> document delivery system has been perverted into a application delivery system
The Web is much more than a document delivery or archiving system, it is hypertext and the boundary between hypertext and apps is fluid. Is Wikipedia an app or a collection of articles? Is HN an app or a collection of comments and links? There is no precise boundary.
When Berners-Lee invented the Web he was heavily inspired by Hypercard [1], an app development kit based on linking cards together.
Web development is "weird" because the web tries to be device- and platform-agnostic. The web works on large widescreens, laptops, smartphones, in text mode or on a Braille display.
Other technologies that have been used to develop UI apps from the beginning, such as Adobe Flash, assume that the display is a kind of fixed screen on which you can draw, with little or no accessibility and linking in mind.
There is no precise boundary, you are correct. However delivering a blob of minified, obfuscated Javascript code that renders the entire UI is obviously an "app", not a document. Web stuff that does entirely client side rendering is an abomination, IMO.
The Web is much more than a document delivery or archiving system, it is hypertext and the boundary between hypertext and apps is fluid. Is Wikipedia an app or a collection of articles? Is HN an app or a collection of comments and links? There is no precise boundary.
When Berners-Lee invented the Web he was heavily inspired by Hypercard [1], an app development kit based on linking cards together.
Web development is "weird" because the web tries to be device- and platform-agnostic. The web works on large widescreens, laptops, smartphones, in text mode or on a Braille display.
Other technologies that have been used to develop UI apps from the beginning, such as Adobe Flash, assume that the display is a kind of fixed screen on which you can draw, with little or no accessibility and linking in mind.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperCard