I try to do all my development within the Flash Platform, especially
using Flex. At Webfuel create all sort of stuff, and I do not have much
complaints to do. Yeah, there are some bugs, but I can't remember one
that affected my workflow, or made me change the architecture of an
application.
I can say that about two years ago I was a bit afraid of ending on a
corner using Flash on big projects or projects with specific
requirements. Nowaday, I can say that it's a very reliable platform -
IF, and only IF you're a experienced developer that knows exactly the
strong and weaks points of the Flash Player and Flex SDK. If you're not,
you will not end a corner, but you'll spend more time than expected
optimizing your code, workflow and architecture until you get the hang
of it.
If applications like Aviary
(http://a.viary.com/blog/posts/britney-spears-gets-detouched-in-aviary)
can be developed using Flash, I think you can trust the stability and
performance of the platform. And there are others, like
http://www.sliderocket.com/ and even an office suite similar to Ms
Office 2007 (i can't remember the link).
What I love on the Flash platform is the fact that you can create
applications that run on the browser easily with zero-install. The
limits you have are the limits imposed by the player - normally,
security ones: direct local disk access, direct access to a database
without a middle tier, copy-paste, communication with the browser (eg.
find feature). On our projects, these are minor things that don't affect
our work. Ok, having local disk access - with explicit user permission -
would be helpful... :)
If you need these things and want to create desktop applications, Air is
an option IF you are experienced in Actionscript and don't want to loose
time learning, for example, .NET or JAVA. I don't think that currently
Air can compete with these platforms... but maybe I'm wrong. ;) (I just
need to be convinced the other way :P). Anyway, Air is great when: 1-
You have one codebase for one application, and you want available both
web-based and desktop 2- You can reuse your existing knowledge of
Actionscript 3- You want to give wings to your creativity on a desktop
application.
For the backend you can go with JAVA or PHP. Unfortunately there isn't
Actionscript on the server side (why?? WHY???? Come on Adobe, I'm tired
of having to follow 2 or 3 different platforms. ).
Hope my opinion helps. :)
João Saleiro
slangeberg wrote:
Flex buggy? Yes.
However... I develop primarily in flex at the time, and please note
that it is in its first / second wave. Eventually, it will be a stable
platform (right, Adobe?). I believe that for the most part, bugs are
confined to the Flex framework, which is optional, and bugs within the
integrated flash player code are fewer and farther...(right, Adobe?).
In the meantime, you can always sniff through the source to see what
the 'dilly' is going on in there.
On Feb 8, 2008 8:56 AM, Victor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> wrote:
Good discussion... and at good time!
My current preferences is to use Flex on frontend + Java on
backend for
projects targeted to end-users,
but use Java both on frontend and backend for those projects where you
can educate users or prepare their working places yourself.
Java on frontend - you have different options:
1) standalone Swing app
2) Java Web Start app (almost the same as standalone Swing app)
3) standalone app using Eclipse RCP + SWT
4) same as (3) but via Web Start
5) applets - but seems this is an anachronism :)
You can use different protocols between Java client and Java server:
RMI, Hessian, HTTP and others.
As for Flex on frontend, you can use RTMP/AMF, HTTP and, partly,
Hessian
protocols.
For now, Java is difficult to install for many end-users, I see this
constantly even for programmers :)
But Consumer JRE is coming soon - maybe the things are changing...
(Consumer JRE - https://jdk6.dev.java.net/6uNea.html)
Flex seems very buggy and NOT so feature-rich and stable as Java, but
Flash Player is installed on many computers, so most users can start
Flash/Flex apps easily.
If Java apps will be installed like Flex ones, it will be time to
forget
about Flex :)
Victor
Martin Wood-Mitrovski wrote:
> Thats a very interesting question and I would love to read what
others have to
> say, my personal take on the situation is this..
>
> When faced with a similar situation about 2 years ago I opted to
build my
> application using the Eclipse RCP framework. I definitely recommend
> investigating that option as the infra-structure for a lot of
the standard
> application features is already there: undo / redo, copy /
paste, drag and drop,
> ui controls (SWT), wizards etc..not forgetting that the whole
eclipse plugin
> ecosystem which you can use.
>
> Saying that, I dont think a transition to java itself is
particularly difficult,
> but rather the concepts and knowledge required for programming
Eclipse takes
> quite some time to learn (although of course there are numerous
examples
> including eclipse itself)
>
> For me I think the time I saved from using RCP (i.e. how long
would it take me
> to build those components by hand in flash) outweighed the time
it took to learn
> how to use it, also once you know how to build eclipse plugins
you can build
> your own plugins to further automate development.
>
> I still do most of my work with flash, but personally I think it
still has some
> way to come before I would consider it for a 'large-scale'
desktop application.
> Im looking forward to when that day arrives and AIR is a good
step forwards but
> I think the application infrastructure required on top of that
isnt there yet.
>
> I look forward to hearing other perspectives.
>
> martin.
>
> sebastian wrote:
>
>> hello OS flashers!
>>
>> I have a high-level question and I would be very keen on
hearing your
>> advice on a heart felt subject of mine.
>>
>> Recently a group of people, including myself, decided to band
together
>> to make some software. It's all ecological minded, ethical business
>> model and generally very exciting, flowery and ideal.
>> :)
>>
>> Now most of us are good AS coders, OOP etc. but we are not "std"
>> application developers.
>>
>> The scope of the project has grown, and our requirements list is
>> becoming quite large. So we have arrived at a crucial decision
point.
>>
>> We are thinking of releasing a bare-essential release at first
of the
>> application, but we would like to build something that we can
eventually
>> flush out to the full extent of our vision in later releases,
and this
>> has started to make me a bit concerned about the technology
decision we
>> should make.
>>
>> Essentially we want to code an application that is fully
featured with
>> all the standard application features of a typical CAD+calender
system:
>> undo/redo, copy-paste, save, edit, open, revert to save, save
as, view
>> option filters, print, print, view rotations, selection lists
etc.etc.etc.
>>
>> The application has to run online but also off line [with off
line data
>> sets that would be installed/copied, periodically updated/dl'ed].
>>
>> The data itself [= XML output files] has to be encrypted
somehow and the
>> application decryption method protected from
hacking/code-sniffing [have
>> not had the time to research if this is possible in flash]
>>
>> My question is, if by developing in flash we are painting
ourselves into
>> a corner?
>>
>> I also can't weigh the pros and cons of developing in standard
>> application-lingo because my expertise is narrow-casted to AS.
>>
>> I find here and there sprinkles of code/libraries for undo/redo
[Command
>> Pattern], and it may very well be I can solve all the issues -
but would
>> all these things be easier and more future-proof in standard
code? If
>> so, much-much easier? Or only slightly so?
>>
>> Practically we have an issue that if we decide to not use AS
for the
>> application we are missing developers [hehe, no small issue] -
so the
>> thought has crossed my mind to code it anyways in flash
[assuming it is
>> not like drinking arsenic]; and then if the application is really
>> successful/appreciated: porting it to standard application code
IF we
>> seem stuck at that point...
>>
>> Thoughts?
>>
>> Sorry this was a bit of a long post, but I wanted to make sure
you all
>> understood my situation well enough to guide me.
>> :)
>>
>> BTW, if any of you are interested in joining an ethical AS project
>> [everyone is part-owner // co-op style and the subject is
ecological] -
>> then naturally, please let me know! We still need one or two
more coders
>> [assuming this thread pans out pro:flash that is]
>> ;)
>>
>> With kindness,
>>
>> Sebastian.
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
>> http://osflash.org/mailman/listinfo/osflash_osflash.org
>>
>>
>
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>
>
>
>
>
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Helping your grandma on the interweb
at: http://blog.criticalpile.com
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