Paul Krill
Editor at Large

Ample SDK gets set for cross-browser apps development

news
Jun 11, 20092 mins

The JavaScript-based toolkit offers a 'natural and efficient' experience

Ample SDK, a GUI toolkit for building cross-browser, client-side applications through a “natural and efficient” development experience, is set to make its debut as a 1.0 release on November 1, the founder of the project said on Thursday.

Written in JavaScript, Ample SDK is intended to also offer a better performance over other solutions, said project founder Sergey Ilinsky, owner of Helsinki, Finland-based Clientside OY. It leverages standard APIs and technologies like XUL, XHTML, SVG1.2Tiny and, in the future, HTML 5. Developers can use skills in JavaScript, DOM, CSS, XHTML, and other technologies.

[ Earlier this week, JavaFX squared off against AJAX in a mock debate at the JavaOne conference. ]

“The [Ample SDK] framework emerged out of an academic exercise – an attempt to make Internet Explorer behave like a standard browser and another attempt to extend on browsers technologies stacks,” Ilinksy said.

The Ample SDK software runs transparently in the layer between a Web browser and an application. It provides the logic of an application with standard cross-browser access to the user interface.

“Ample SDK runs in every modern Web browser,” the Ample SDK Web site states. “When running, it fills in functionality missing from the browser, giving Web developers a standards-based API that allows them to stop worrying about browser quirks and start efficiently writing cross-browser application code.”

No components are required on the browser. “It doesn’t modify the browser infrastructure, but rather fills in the missing functionality,” according to the Ample SDK Web site.

Ample SDK is now in a technical preview phase of development.

Paul Krill

Paul Krill is editor at large at InfoWorld. Paul has been covering computer technology as a news and feature reporter for more than 35 years, including 30 years at InfoWorld. He has specialized in coverage of software development tools and technologies since the 1990s, and he continues to lead InfoWorld’s news coverage of software development platforms including Java and .NET and programming languages including JavaScript, TypeScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, Rust, and Go. Long trusted as a reporter who prioritizes accuracy, integrity, and the best interests of readers, Paul is sought out by technology companies and industry organizations who want to reach InfoWorld’s audience of software developers and other information technology professionals. Paul has won a “Best Technology News Coverage” award from IDG.

More from this author