>>But how do you actually 'publish' a local HTML application? Typically you still need some sort of wrapper to actually display the HTML and get it started.
>
>My hopes were on the way Chrome allows you to work with installable web apps.
>Have only read about the technology, so I might overlook some problems:
>There are 2 kinds of apps, hosted and packaged, each with a small manifest file and an icon file.
>With the packaged app the HTML start form is included in the downloadable zip file.
>
>>How do you deal with local data (offline storage isn't really an option for serious work).
>
>(I saw your response to JohnR - this could have been written there...)
>I had VERY high hopes for the HTML5 WebSQL after reading that gears would be discontinued
>to concetrate on the HTML5 standard. Then one Firefox engineer somehow changed directions for the
>API to support (because SQLite is not realy a standard) in FF
>and MS was only too happy not to support it in IE (personal cynic opinion).
>
(snip)

This past spring I went to a one day Microsoft event in Milwaukee where one of the speakers was Mads Kristensen of Microsoft. He described his position as being responsible for MS's involvement in the HTML5 standards process. He said they want to be involved and strive for full compliance even if not every Microsoft product was compliant right away. There were some knowing chuckles around the room, which I took to mean as an assumption that he was referring to IE. Of course he wasn't going to stand there and say it that baldly in a room with several hundred developers.