I've been really trying to stay away from this... but I have to chime in.
On Mar 24, 2008, at 10:11 AM, Dave Meeker wrote: > The biggest advantages of using the Flash player as a runtime for > your RIA > as opposed to using AJAX: > > 1) Write once, deploy cross platform That "pro" is also it's biggest con, in that you are tying yourself, your product and everything you do to Adobe in what is effectively a closed and proprietary format. In other words, you are at the mercy of the Adobe folks getting it right year over year as technology continues to evolve. > 2) You can turn your Flex application into a desktop application > without > much code refactoring (using AIR). Indeed. This is a nice argument for creating a thin client product. But mixing these products into browser environments as well as having desktop versions is massively confusing in my opinion. I actually think Flash/Flex is better for the thin client approach, and desperately wish people would stop embedding massively complex Flash apps inside web browsers where they make little sense. > 3) With the evolution of browsers, you can be less concerned about > how to > migrate your code to keep up with changes in the Document Object > Model in > AJAX, as the Flash player is backwards compatible. This is an argument for dropping the web browser as a development platform. However, if Adobe ever were honest about that product path, they'd probably lose 90% of the people who would even be interested in using Flash/Flex. Why? Because the products would live outside the massive deployment model of the web browser. Unfortunate as that is. So, in short... be careful with this point. It will burn a lot of people when you get into the heart of *WHY* it is the case. > 4) The Flash player now has hardware acceleration... so you can > build UI's > that look and feel the way YOU want the to, and not be limited by your > development technology No. You are still limited by whatever Flash can or cannot do as a platform. Let's not even bring up how crappy text handling still is to this day in the Flash rendering environment. > 5) 3-d integration (using papervision or another framework) No one cares about this. Ok... maybe 3% of the development teams out there do... but really, no one cares about this point. > 6) Handles LOTS of data much, much, much better (data grids with > tons of > rows, etc) Based on what metrics? I have yet to find a Flash/Flex app that handles large sets of data faster or better that a well implemented browser or desktop version. They all have their pitfalls, especially when done improperly. And yes, this includes and understanding that even if you could display a thousand rows of data in less than a second, people can't process it on something as coarse as the resolution of a computer screen, so who cares? > All in all, it's been a really good tool in my experiences... But I > preface > that by saying I've been fortunate enough to work with some pretty > talented > software engineers that really know the framework and how to make > it sing. That's obviously a big issue. The thing I have yet to understand is that if I'm working with that kind of engineering group, which I have have done so many times in my past, why not just build a real desktop client application and regain control of everything you need to gain control of. Sure, *some* of the up front engineering may take a tad longer than going the RIA route, but given the total and full amount of control you'll get for that investment, Now... I'm not saying Flex/Silverlight or any of those technologies are bad or anything. But what I am tired of are people who aren't discussing the pros and cons of all of them at a purely agnostic, "what happens" level, letting people decide for themselves what they really need to do for their product development. Your list crosses that line for me. -- Andrei Herasimchuk Principal, Involution Studios innovating the digital world e. [EMAIL PROTECTED] c. +1 408 306 6422 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
