HTML5 App For Panasonic TVs Rejected - JQuery Is a "Hack" 573
An anonymous reader writes "I have been working on an HTML5 app for Panasonic VIERA TVs, specifically a client for the Plex Media Server. After paying $129 for the developer program, version 1.0 was submitted for inclusion in their VIERA Connect marketplace several weeks ago. After a few requested tweaks, they inquired about how the client communicated with the Plex Server. As many/most web developers do, I used jQuery and its $.ajax call (which is just a wrapper for XMLHttpRequest()). They insisted this was not standard Javascript, and after several communications with them, they replied back with "A workaround like this is considered a hack.". I'm stunned that anyone familiar with HTML would consider jQuery a hack. I've been patient in attempting to explain how jQuery works, but I am getting nowhere. Any thoughts on how I can better explain jQuery to an app reviewer? Yes, I know I can write my app without any Javascript library, but I am really hoping avoid that."
Panasonic has a TV app store? (Score:5, Interesting)
jQuery is a hack too?
I learned two things today.
Apple may be even worse (Score:4, Interesting)
Where I work, there is an entire group of people, whose sole task is communicating with Apple's app-reviewers. Any time a new app is submitted, they even include a list of reasons, that led to another app of ours getting rejected earlier — with the explanations on why each of those reasons was invalid.
It is never an easy process...
oh look, an actual tech related "ask slashdot"... (Score:5, Interesting)
I wonder if /. Is trying to put out a story that will attract actual answers, given that 90% of all the comments in the community today have been about the bloat of beta.slashdot.org instead of the topic presented in the summary.
As for the actual topic:
What are the reasons, other than time and it's associated costs, for not wanting to do without a javascript binary, just so you can use JQuery? It's been a trend I have been seeing lately with embedded devices (like TVs) being treated like they were desktop computers with gobs and gobs of resources to blow, and where deploying a large multipurpose binary for a single (or small number of) function(s) is commonplace.
Throwing a big multipurpose library in there can pose a significant security risk (from the company's PoV anyway) because the library can do much more than just handle the small number of things you want it to, and some of those things can be undesirable.
Other than the costs to time, what are your reasons for wanting to use a multipurpose javascript engine for such a narrow scope?
The Beta is horrible (Score:5, Interesting)
Sadly, I'm going to be moving on from Slashdot, but I don't know of anywhere on the Net has such good discussions with such relatively intelligent people. The stories on Slashdot often suck, but the moderation moderation, I think, is what has kept it such a great place to have discussions. Is there any other site that has similar moderation?
Re:Boycott (Score:3, Interesting)
This new interface is horrible. It is simply not as easy to consume information as the current.
I am challenged to keep up with the updates from every information source to which I subscribe. This would be a significant barrier to my daily use of this site.
Re:Move on (Score:0, Interesting)
Maybe they are clueless about a lot of things, but they are right about JQuery. I hate JQuery with an absolute passion. Not only does it go for odd ways of doing things that break browsers that are somewhat out of the mainstream (while avoiding more portable solutions), it's not even a good, well-thought-out solution. If my browser doesn't work right on a given website, it's almost a certainty that the site uses JQuery.
Do you really want to sap the performance of your script by following the JQuery ethos of using expensive DOM-query navigators for every operation instead of simply gathering up an array of element references only once and then using that repeatedly? Do you really want to depend on JQuery's half-assed implementation as a basic library that doesn't do a lot but depends on plugging in a host of user-supplied packages of greatly varying quality and support in order to get the real work done?
It does offer a seductive API. It is a terrible hack, though.
Re:It'll be alright. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The Beta is horrible (Score:4, Interesting)
Try reddit. reddit is split in subreddits each with its own RSS feed:
http://www.reddit.com/r/games [reddit.com]
http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming [reddit.com]
http://www.reddit.com/r/pcgami... [reddit.com]
http://www.reddit.com/r/privac... [reddit.com]
http://www.reddit.com/r/politi... [reddit.com]
http://www.reddit.com/r/openso... [reddit.com]
http://www.reddit.com/r/techno... [reddit.com]
http://www.reddit.com/r/law [reddit.com]
http://www.reddit.com/r/space [reddit.com]
http://www.reddit.com/r/scienc... [reddit.com]
http://www.reddit.com/r/govern... [reddit.com]
http://www.reddit.com/r/securi... [reddit.com]
http://www.reddit.com/r/biotec... [reddit.com]
http://www.reddit.com/r/censor... [reddit.com]
If you get an account and click "subscribe" in each of those subreddits you can get a personallized RSS with only the best of those subreddits!
Re:Bad timing, hope this helps. (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm not sure pointing out a hack they used on their own website invalidates their desire not to see it running on their TV platform.
Next you'll be saying Nintendo should allow flash apps onto their virtual console/app store because they use flash on their website.
The latter doesn't build the case for the former at all.
Re:It'll be alright. (Score:5, Interesting)
From what I've seen of Beta, there are no comment moderation scores, and no way of viewing responses to your comments other than drilling down to them.
Also, no way to quote parent comments, and you have to put your own comment subject in.
Re:Where to go after Slashdot? (Score:5, Interesting)
Slashcode, which the site runs on is open source. Could we create a new, independent Slashdot that runs classic Slashcode ... and get it to host the same community as is hosted here?
Slashdot is based on user content. Once enough users are as active on the new site as they are on the old, the new site will be viable as a replacement.
Some users would have to work on the old site to submit and upvote "stories" with posters and links to the new site, to make people understand which site that they should migrate to.
Re:Panasonic has a TV app store? (Score:5, Interesting)
They don't say that jQuery is a hack. They say that using features like XMLHttpRequest directly (or via a 3rd party library) and not using the Panasonic API is a "hack" around their TOS. Submitter fails at reading comprehension.
Re:Fuck Beta: I've been here for 13 years (Score:5, Interesting)
"If it aint broke, then don't fix it" applies here.
My user account is from the first day that the site had come up again after a crash that had wiped the user database and everyone had to reregister. My previous user ID was not as low.
Re: Ah, yes... but... FUCK BETA! (Score:2, Interesting)
welcome to the world of "professional" software development.
No kidding. This is from the second paragraph of the guy's pathetic message-to-Panasonic-turned-fourm-post-turned-Slashdot-article:
Essentially, jQuery implements a Javascript class “$”,
Yeah, we're not dealing with even a minimally competent "developer" here. Judging from the rest of the thread, he's not the exception.
The Daily WTF, Woot, and Slashdot (Score:2, Interesting)
I stayed with The Daily WTF through their Worse Than Failure transition and they listened to their users and switched back. I still visit them w/o ad blocking. I've only been back to Woot once since their redesign, just to make sure they haven't reverted to their previous fame, they haven't. I'll never buy something from there again nor support anything with their brand mark. I'm a college student and we'd have 'Woot parties' during their Woot Offs. No one here has spoken about them since their transition. They're completely dead to us. Slashdot will be dead to us too.
On the plus side, I'll have more time to read actual research papers so I'll have a greater depth in my field. However I did like the breadth Slashdot game me with tech in general. Dice won't listen (and you'd have to actually contact them not just protest on the forums. They probably don't read these posts and if they do then they've already shown us they don't care).
Someone please fork the site and I'll actually get an account this time.
Re:Beta is terrible! (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Ah, yes... but... FUCK BETA! (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Beta is terrible! (Score:4, Interesting)