In anticipation of the upcoming DevCon5 conference in New York, TMCnet recently caught up with Peter Dunkley, technical director at Crocodile RCS Ltd., along with Crocodile HTML5 developers Gavin Llewellyn and James Wyatt, to get their thoughts on the current status of HTML5.

Crocodile RCS was founded in 2010 and works closely with telecom operators to tackle the evolving challenges of modern communication technology. Its Web communication services have enhanced telecommunication networks, utilizing the Internet as an avenue for voice, video, UC and other rich communication capabilities. Crocodile RCS Ltd will be showcasing its products and services at the upcoming DevCon5 conference in New York on July 24th and 25th.


Peter Dunkley

What has been the biggest surprise to you about the adoption of HTML5?

The biggest surprise Crocodile found during our adoption of HTML5 was the debugging and development capabilities built into the browsers. This was a pleasant surprise as these types of development tools are essential for rapid development of complex applications.

We have all sorts of frameworks, JavaScript, and now Apperating Systems. How do you choose what to use and do we run the risk of having interoperability issues beyond the browser?

At Crocodile we try to look at the requirements of a project in the whole and make technology decisions that match those requirements. Interoperability is very important so where possible we use technology based on open-standards.

What advice would you give to developers just starting with HTML5?

Follow good programming practice – HTML5 is not just a markup language – so keep your code modular to make it easy to test and re-use components. Be aware of the breadth of features within HTML5 and the libraries available, as you can save a lot of time if you can make use of these instead of writing everything yourself. Test on a variety of browsers and versions (particularly with different rendering engines) as there are often subtle differences between different interpretations of the HTML5 standard.

Should we expect the entire Web to move to support mobile?

No. There are no technical reasons why a mobile device couldn’t run any web-site or web-app. However, some applications simply will not be suitable for the touchscreen and “no physical keyboard” paradigm of current mobile devices.

The vast majority of the Web will support mobile, but there will always be specific sites and applications that just do not make sense on mobile.

Gavin Llewellyn

What is the relationship between Web development and the cloud? 

This is a commercial relationship. The cloud provides cost-effective infrastructure that is available to developers who are not necessarily skilled system administrators. This lowers the barrier to entry and enables small development teams to start quickly without a great deal of capital.

Should we expect all HTML5 sites to be good or, like apps, will the sites be hit or miss?

HTML5 will not improve the skills of the developers, nor will it magically transform a terrible idea into a good one. HTML5 enables skilled developers to rapidly implement their good ideas. But if the developers are not skilled and/or the idea is not good, the HTML5 site will not be good.

Who do you pay attention to on github and why?

At Crocodile we follow projects rather than people. Right now we are following JsSIP, node-xmpp-bosh, and ejabberd. We follow these projects because we make extensive use of those technologies.

How much of your work is now using HTML5 (JS/CSS3), and how do you see that changing by the end of the year? What percentage will it be by the end of 2013?  

The crocodilertc.net platform consists of JavaScript libraries, HTML5 examples, and server side infrastructure. Approximately one third of our development effort goes into the JavaScript libraries and HTML5 examples. This ratio will probably not change this year.


James Wyatt

What question should I have asked you and what would be your answer?

What are the most exciting features of HTML5?

WebRTC, WebSockets, and the real time communication capabilities that these technologies provide – both for media and data. The ability to establish context-aware real-time sessions between browsers, and between browsers and servers, will revolutionize communications and the Web.

What are you hoping to achieve at DevCon5 in New York?

I will be speaking about WebSockets and WebRTC at DevCon5. This technology facilitates safe bidirectional communication between web-browsers and servers and will enable a whole new generation of interactive web-sites and web-apps. I hope to hear about lots of new and exciting ideas that these capabilities are now enabling.

Can you join us in Universal City, California, December 10-11, for the next DevCon5 conference?

I plan to be there.