[sagec]

To everyone asking about bookmark management, check @MichaelClewely posts from today on twitter.

The "native" (as in, built-in) browser is an AIR app. I think this answers some of our queries regarding excessive memory usage, slowness, and dicey interface.

On a more positive note, I predict (ducks for cover) that in BB10, the Browser will be a native C based app and we'll have avant garde features such as bookmark management...

[peter9477]

It's not "pure" AIR, however, as noted here http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...9/#post7326378

The entire page content is displayed by a WebKit control, with that being written in C++. It's all the surrounding stuff, the bookmark handling and other settings pages, the top-swipe menu with the tabs, and things like that which are handled by AIR.

I'm just noting this to avoid some people getting confused into thinking the entire thing, including HTML parsing and page rendering, is handled by AIR code.

[xsacha]

It's basically like calling a QtQuick web browser, a 'Javascript' browser.
Almost all the code that does anything is native though.

[notfanboy]

nevermind, my question was answered in the other thread.

[sagec]

It's not "pure" AIR, however, as noted here http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...9/#post7326378

The entire page content is displayed by a WebKit control, with that being written in C++. It's all the surrounding stuff, the bookmark handling and other settings pages, the top-swipe menu with the tabs, and things like that which are handled by AIR.

I'm just noting this to avoid some people getting confused into thinking the entire thing, including HTML parsing and page rendering, is handled by AIR code.

Very true, it's the browser UI/chrome that is AIR based.

[Yoox_II]

What do you mean bookmark management? Isn't the gold star, sorting through your bookmarks considered management?
And, is an air app a bad thing how is different than other apps?

[pcguy514]

What do you mean bookmark management? Isn't the gold star, sorting through your bookmarks considered management?
And, is an air app a bad thing how is different than other apps?

Air isn't a bad thing just better for games or so I read elsewhere, the bookmark management they refer to is being able to manually sort bookmarks in their own preferred order.(click and drag )

[Innovatology]

There is nothing wrong with AIR, and it's certainly not only for games.

You may be surprised to hear that OS2's Mail, Calendar, Contacts apps are also AIR apps...

[pcguy514]

Didn't see anyone say ONLY for games, but yeah she most of the bb aps are presently air and will be recoded for cascades as soon as it's finished.

[goku_vegeta]

Facebook for PlayBook (Official RIM client) is also an AIR app, I believe someone previously mentioned that the native Music player was also coded in Adobe AIR, ergo if that's true then possibly the native video player might be coded in AIR.

[BuzzStarField]

Didn't see anyone say ONLY for games, but yeah she most of the bb aps are presently air and will be recoded for cascades as soon as it's finished.

Someone DID say, however, that Air apps are inherently weak and this is just not the case. The UI elements work just fine - lists are NOT "laggy" as some have suggested. Cascades will offer a more compelling interface but there is no reason that developers will have to re-code all of their Air apps for the sole sake of improving performance. This notion that this is required is pure myth. If an Air app is performing poorly, it is likely because the developer has made errors - there will be Cascades apps that perform poorly for the same reason.

[LuayS]

not to mention the every so laggy app world app.

[app_Developer]

I'm not sure why people think there won't be a huge improvement as we move towards true native apps.

I'm working on my twitter app for PB using just Qt and C++ at this point. Timeline scrolling on my app is already significantly more fluid than the popular Air based app and it's also more consistent as avatars come in off the network. It feels much more like the popular iPad twitter apps (which are also native code), and I have 8-9 potential optimizations recorded that are yet to be implemented.

I don't think that's because the developers of that Air-based app are less good than I am. I think as more apps come out where one is written natively using Qt/Cascades, and the other in Air, users will be able to tell the difference in many cases (of course it depends on the app). I think iOS users who pick up a Playbook or BB10 will *easily* tell the difference since they are used to fluid, highly optimized scrolling and list views and panning in most of the popular iOS apps.

BTW, the app I'm working in also uses about 30% as much memory as the Air based one, although I'm sure I'll give some of that back with Cascades. This is something we've noticed with Air on other platforms also.

[Blacklac]

Pretty obvious. Opening new tabs and such are quite laggy. Can't wait for native Apps to be off AIR.