LOL dude! On Apr 1, 9:01 am, "Paul Downey (psd)" <paul.s.dow...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi There! > > I'm a big fan of TiddlyWiki, and have enjoyed using it for a couple of > years now, even being motivated enough to develop the odd patch and > plugin! All well and good, but I have noticed a few fundamental > weaknesses with TiddlyWiki which I think I've managed to address in a > new product which I've been quietly working on in the background. It's > something I'm really quite proud of, and which I'd like to share with > you all today! > > So I hereby announce TiddlyFlash - a clean-room implementation of > TiddlyWiki written in Adobe ActionScript and targeted at Flash Player > 10. > > TiddlyFlash has a number of advantages over the current HTML/CSS/ > JavaScript version of TiddlyWiki, notably: > > * Flash is universal where as capable browsers are becoming harder to > find. Using Flash gives developers a write once, run anywhere > experience, freeing them from worrying about cross-browser issues. > Everybody loves Flash and has it installed and enabled on their > desktops, laptops and phones. > > * TiddlyFlash users benefit from a number of advanced features such as > animations, sound, videos, control of web cameras and 3D bump-mapped > texture and shading. These are essential for most wiki use-cases and > heralding a new era of animation, slick-shading and other "Because I > Can" developments not possible with current browsers. This > particularly important for those of us who use the current browser of > choice, Internet Explorer. > > * SEO is a solved problem for Flash now Google indexes the text inside > many Flash files. > > * Accessibility is a solved problem for Flash: it's simple to add key- > shortcuts and you can always keep a separate copy of the text for use > in screen readers. > > * it is possible, indeed trivial, to hide the TiddlyFlash content > inside a binary Flash file, allowing TiddlyFlash to hide text from Web > and desktop searching technologies. This is particularly useful when > running a guerilla TiddlyFlash on a machine with Google search or > Apple Spotlight installed and you don't want people to find your > content. > > * furthermore, it seems feasible to implement Digital Rights > Management (DRM) for TiddlyFlash text, essential for building business > critical documents. > > * offline mode, something which we know has been tricky for some > browsers, is now a simple matter of downloading the Adobe AIR platform > and running a version compiled, packaged and made available for this > ubiquitous environment. > > * browser cookies are easily cleared and are often blocked by some > people overly cautious about privacy. Such people aren't as aware of > Shared Local Objects (LSO)* and it's unusual for them to be cleared, > greatly assisting the more sticky storage of TiddlyFlash options. > > * whilst it's true that there are few viable ways of building Flash > applications with free software, the excellent Adobe Flash CS4 is a > very reasonable $699, so it's actually better than free to write and > distribute Flash programs. It is true that there are some minor > licensing things to worry about, but in many cases it doesn't cost > anything to distribute Flash programs. > > * view-source of TiddlyWiki has introduced a number of security issues > and has been an obstacle to anyone wanting to develop commercial > TiddlyWiki plugins. TiddlyFlash brings the advantage of a closed- > source ecosystem, protecting my and plugin developers revenue streams. > > * the unconventional Open Source nature of TiddlyWiki can be an issue > for certain users, notably those within enterprises, therefore > TiddlyFlash will be delivered as a trusted-source binary. Of course > there will be a conventional EULA to OK to protect your supplier from > errors, inadvertent or otherwise. I may consider providing paid-for > support contracts given that shouldn't be too onerous to meet the > expected standards for a typical commercial software product, and can > probably be outsourced. > > * trusted-source code means we can have a TiddlyFlashStore, where you > will be able to buy quality controlled TiddlyFlash software and where > developers may upload their plugins and verticals on a reasonably and > non-discriminatory fair revenue share. Registration will of course be > subject to my approval and at a nominal fee of, say $99 USD per > application. > > * ActionScript is a much nicer version of JavaScript, and coming from > a single vendor, means it is more coherently designed, stable, better > documented and with an understandable roadmap than the supposedly > standard ECMA JavaScript. Anyone who decides to join the TiddlyFlash > Developers' Programme will find writing plugins and extensions far > easier and more satisfying. (Note, I may keep some of the more > advanced developer features hidden, depending if I decide to write my > own plugins. I may also run premium developer courses for those > wanting to upskill from JavaScript to TiddlyFlash ActionScript.) > > * the future of the Web is Rich Internet technologies such as Flash, > not in the current mish-mash of competing ad-hoc and Open Source > browsers and the current limiting constraints which put greater value > in documents and hyperlinks over cool interactions and effects. I > think most everybody here must agree that browsers are an antiquated > technology, subject to diminishing interest from developers and Web > designers. I for one am happy to abandon TiddlyWiki and leave it with > the browser to wither on the vine! > > Going forward, I'm pretty certain it's feasible for TiddlyFlash to be > ported to Microsoft Silverlight for similar advantages but for those > who prefer Microsoft, possibly for those who worry Adobe may not be > around forever or trust them not to exploit their status as a single > suppler. So if anyone is interested in porting TiddlyFlash to > TiddlySilverlight, I'm more than happy to discuss terms. Feel free to > shoot me an email and I'll get my lawyer pass on an NDA, which you can > sign and fax back to me before we proceed further with negotiation for > a source code license terms, i.e. business as usual! > > I think you must agree this is very promising avenue. I'm almost ready > to launch subject to resolving a number of small issues, for example > cutting and pasting text, high CPU use and permalinks to Flash- > tiddlers has turned out to be much harder than you'd imagine, but > these somehow feel less important as time goes on. > > As you can imagine, I'm very excited by this project, as indeed I was > by the idea of a mainstream TiddlyWiki for the Enterprise** last year. > Aren't you? > > Paul (psd) > --http://blog.whatfettle.com > > *http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Shared_Object > **http://groups.google.com/group/TiddlyWikiDev/msg/78a55a4cc9c66630
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