Web browsers have come a long way from simply displaying text information. We now have built in graphics and networking that really bring the browser one step closer to replacing\merging with the desktop. On the plus side, when you make a web application it spans across all platforms. Windows, Mac, it typically doesn't matter, your audience is huge. On the downside, you are more limited to what you can accomplish, and the fancier your get, the more sluggish your applications become. Well, slowly but surely the negatives of a web app are slipping away and here are some cool examples of that.
The first example I'd like to show is a raycasting engine written in 5k of Javascript. Raycasting, for you not-so-nerdy types, is the technique used to make such classic computer games as Wolfenstein3d and Doom. Though these games appear 3d, they are really 2d but appear 3d through some rendering tricks.
http://www.wolf5k.com/faq.html
5k is an extremely small for anything, especially a raycasting game.
The second example, isn't anything to practical, yet, but makes awesome use of Javascript and the canvas tag. Image the types of things we could do with this if IE supported canvas!
http://www.andrew-hoyer.com/experiments/cloth
The last example, is a brilliant example of what could be when HTML5 becomes standard. I put a emphasis on "could be" since, to my knowledge, MS hasn't made anything regarding the canvas tag official with IE 9. IE is really the bottle neck holding back this sort of thing from becoming more mainstream, but regardless, check it out, and marvel at the brilliance of yet another 20% time Google project.
http://code.google.com/p/quake2-gwt-port/
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