Dave Watts wrote: >>That puts the developer of the Flash application in >>control, not me. >> >>And in my browser I can shift-click to open in a new >>window and control-click to open in a new tab. > > I don't think that's really a fair comparison. In an application interface, > the application developer should be in control.
To a certain extend. But in a traditional application interface, lets say an intranet application, the application developer knows much more about the visitor. He knows the visitor is on the intranet with 0.4 ms latency, using a computer with a 14+ inch screen, a mouse and a keyboard so he can design an interface for exactly that situation. But does that really work when you are delivering an application over the internet to the other side of the world and you don't know if the guy on the other end is using a PDA or a workstation with a 22 inch screen? And even then, the problem is not just control, it is also predictability. I know how my browser respnds to certain commands, but every Flash application can respond differently. I mean, after Mike's code example I went to the DevEx to try the Shift-click and Control-click expecting them to work because the code looks trivial. But it didn't work, and there is no way to see that from the outside. > The developer should be able > to guide and constrain the user of the application. We take this for granted > with non-HTML applications. We don't really take it for granted. If we don't like the buttons of the mediaplayer, we skin it. If we think these insanely big buttons of the browser take up to much room on our PDA screens, we use a minimalistic theme. On our desktop, we all arrange the shortcuts in a different way, we use different color scheme's etc. > Why should we expect web applications to behave > like documents? Why should we limit web applications to what documents can > present? I don't expect applications to behave like documents. But I expect them to copy the best behaviour from documents and combine that with the best behaviour of traditional applications. And in some areas I feel it is actually the web applications that are quite limited. I hope you can prove me wrong, but I haven't seen any web application that recognizes that I have a laptop that I have customised to some high contrast colors because the screen is so lousy. But both traditional applications that use the OS color scheme and web documents that use my browser colors can easily provide a legible interface. (That laptop died, but you get the point.) I think Flash has reached the point where it can compete with many full blown intranet applications (intranet = controlled environment). I think Flash can deliver powerfull widgets over the internet (and people will often not even notice it is Flash). I am not so sure if Flash is the answer to deliver full blown applications over the internet. I think it is better as the applet/activeX options, but it still lacks some of the features of HTML. (HTML on the other hand lacks persistence, has implementation issues and isn't really interactive.) Jochem ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=4 FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Signup for the Fusion Authority news alert and keep up with the latest news in ColdFusion and related topics. http://www.fusionauthority.com/signup.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
