Flex 2
Been keeping an eye on Flash happenings, especially the release of Flex 2 and Flash 8.5 alpha.
Looks like their VM is getting better and better:
ActionScript 3 performance
courtesy oddhammer’s AS3 performance tests
I also like the Eclipse integration. Now if I could get some time to try it out hands on, that would be nice. 
Basically, I’m wondering if it’s ready for prime-time, stuff like real-time trading apps.
I have the deepest sympathy for Laszlo, though, who got there first with their XML + JavaScript == build ==> ActionScript model, but are being ousted by fate (a.k.a Adobe/Macromedia).
Ajax
Awesome tricks, but it’s a trick. Problem is : you don’t want to do JS for n browsers. Not me, at least. There are enough business-layer problems to deal with. You’d want a GUI that just works.
Remember that Ajax GUIs are impressive not because of what they DO, but because of what you thought you COULD NOT do in the browser for so many years. But when you see a solid working Flash GUI that works both as a Desktop App as well as a browser App, the value-add is too good to ignore. I think Flash apps are ALMOST there…Once they get it that for browser apps, one needs to make sure that the browser-habits are still useful (Ctrl-F to start up a Find, etc;), the psychological resistance will come down. (I don’t think download time is a big issue because it’s a one-time cost).
Morfik does a good job of encapsulating the magic, and is an almost-as-good-as-desktop-programming solution. Except, I bet “Morfik Java” etc; don’t have threads, for example. Because the “VM” here (target language, if you insist) is JavaScript.
In comparison, Flash is not just a plug-in but a self-contained VM & GUI, too : you could build a web browser entirely in Flash, for example. (Update: As an example : liveplasma is the kind of full-screen Flash UI I like seeing. But as mentioned above, I wish Ctrl-F, etc; worked as they do in the browser…)
Also, I guess firms think about being able to hire people : multi-browser JS is an esoteric skill in comparison to Java + XML in Eclipse skills (which is the model that Flex 2 and Laszlo offer).
Microsoft is Live, remember?
Then there’s MS and Avalon…whew, changing landscape all the time eh?!
My bet?
Flash with Flex 2 for unified (i.e., both web and desktop applications) GUIs:
- More developer base for both the traditional ActionScript side and the newer Java-friendly side.
- Longer history ==> less bugs in the VM.
- (Adobe + Macromedia vs. Microsoft : CIO types will feel comfortable investing in either of them.)
Methinks Ajax is a phase. 5 years down the line, it will still be there (remember how long it took for Gmail and come teach Yahoo to change?), but we’ll find a much more pain-free way of doing unified GUI development by then.
Please feel to criticize and correct : I don’t earn my bread and butter from GUI work and do not KNOW any of the techologies (except Java and XML) in great depth. I’m sure to have got some angles wrong….speculation for the most part.
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