Rational thinking Flash and Ajax related issues

ajax| problem

This article is written in the book "Interactive Design road-let High-tech products return to humanity", "Ajax in Action" two books.

I do not wish to have such a title, but the crisis has come. Before (2005-04-28-year lapse) I have translated articles and comments on a blog abroad :

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Http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2005/04/18/Adobe-Macromedia

Seems straightforward to me. Adobe is in the center of Print production (PhotoShop & Friends, InDesign, PDF) while Macromedia ' s DreamWeaver is The single most important web-design product. Dave Shea says this might is about Flash, but let me suggest exactly the opposite:if your ' re hitching your career to flash , it might be a good time to look at alternatives. Why ' s that? Because, near as I can tell, Macromedia has never made all serious money with Flash. They ' ve accomplished one of the great, heroic, marketing coups of all time, getting the plug-in, onto substantially every D Esktop on the planet; And this bought them, uh, what exactly? They sell authoring tools, but seriously, how many Flash designers does the world need?

Anyhow, most of the good things you can does with Flash, you can do about as a with DHTML (oops that's called AJAX now And our ' Back ' button still works. I guess there ' s no reason to actually shut Flash down, the tool revenue the must about cover the engineering. But Adobe, historically, has been good at focusing in what works and dropping the distractions. (Can you remember Pagemill?) Flash is a distraction. [Update:smell something burning? That would is me, sizzling in a torrent of flash-flavored flame.]

For me, this is a very clear fact: Adobe is at the heart of the printing industry (Photoshop and PDF), while Macromedia (under the MM) DW is also the only one of the classic web-building tools (awflasher.com Note: Personally think it can even be said to be a sharp weapon). Daveshea said Flash may be like them (ps,pdf from ADOBE,DW), but let me tell you the opposite: if you position your future career in Flash-related, it's best to give yourself a prepared ... and you'll have to do it. Why do you say that? Because, as far as I know, MM has never been in the flash aspect of what financial resources, they just got an unexpected harvest! (AW Note: Here think of an introduction to mm official when the big acquisition of the strong rendering, if this sentence is true, it is also inevitable a bit of injury), in addition, most people say that Adobe will not be silly to shoot the flash, but saw the Luar blog, there is such a word " Adobe has a large number of mergers and exports to eliminate the bad history of the products, "it is inevitable to make me a bit chilling." M installs the player on every corner of the globe and sells the tools, but how many flash designers does the world need? In short, most of the tasks you can accomplish with flash can be done with DHTML (now called Ajax), and your back button is still valid (AW NOTE: Flash can actually operate on the background buttons, but most flasher will not. Do not add this bug to the head of Flash. I don't think there's any reason to turn flash off because the benefits of this tool can be used to fill the cost of the project.

Adobe, however, has always focused on one side and discarded what remains "distracting" (AW: It's not clear, MM, is it used to fill their own gaps in other Web projects, such a pathetic positioning??? ）。 Do you remember Pagemill (AW: It looks like a bad Adobe software). And Flash is a kind of "distracting things". (Author Note: Is it a bit of a fire?) I feel your rage.

Reasoned debate Some people took the time to compose and post coherent arguments as to why I might is wrong. For example, Pete Freitag writes "I, I'm Macromedia makes most of its," "I," and so I don ' t do, so they'll b E Cutting it anytime soon "and if he's right, then I ' m wrong. John Dowdell of Macromedia offers an example of something so he says are beyond DHTML ' s reach and says ' Funny, your ' d sort A I-am-Sun would be bullish on a cross-platform, Cross-browser ' write once play anywhere ' "kind of thingy, wouldn ' t for you. .? ;-)”. ?

Some people come up with considerable evidence to tell me that my remarks are wrong. For example, Petefreitag said, "I think most of MM's revenue comes from flash, so I don't think they'll stop flash," and if he's right, then of course I'm wrong. The MM Company's Johndowdell provides an example of what he believes is beyond the ability of DHTML to achieve, and says, "Interestingly, you seem to be positioning sun too high as a cross-platform, Cross-browser ' write (code) that can be executed everywhere." ”

Get Yer Flames here! Hoo Boy, those Flash faithful are, what ' the word I ' m looking for, um, articulate. Here ' s a sampling:?
Are you angry? Oh, these flash believers, these languages are what I'm looking for, here are some examples:

[Original comment: aw Note: Very funny + cute]
"I assume his comments are a ill-tempered and unprofessional anomaly."-brian Lesser.
"I'm sure he has a problem, pervert ..."-brian lesser.

"Sun could only dream of a ' day ' Adobe guts Flash so this we might return to those great days of clunky Java applets th At never actually fulfilled their purpose within the development community. "-justin Everett-church.
"Sun can only dream of one day Adobe will destroy Flash, and then their javaapplets can be a comeback"-justin Everett-church.

"Johnny Script kiddie not knowing about stuff as I can understand, but the director of Web technologies at Sun Shou LD at least have some sort clue. "-stephen Milligan.

"Today's ' whistling past the Graveyard ' award goes to Tim Bray, Director of Web Technologies at Sun, whose apparent focus On Java renders him incapable of understanding the value proposition of Flash. No Wonder Java continues to stagnate! "-ray Everett-church.
"Today's Graveyard Whistle Award (AW Note: Guessing is a derogatory" prize ") should be owned by Timbray, the head of the Sun's web technology department, whose neglect of Flash is why Java is now in a dilemma! "-ray Everett-church.

"Mr. Bray must not to be spending to the users *i*. Those under the age of-kim Cavanaugh. [ouch!]
"Mr. Bray certainly didn't spend much time on the user. Those under the age of 45 "-kim Cavanaugh. [ouch!]
(AW Note: This "Ouch" is not known to be the author plus)

"In my opinion," Timothy Bray is a pillock of the The "the", "-gerry Marshall.
"It seems to me that the author is just a pillock of the ' the ' the ' The ' Water '"-gerrymarshall
(AW Note: Don't know what that means)

"I would have it ' all rubbish of course."-daniel Freeman.
"I think it's all rubbish,"-danielfreeman.
(AW Note: The original foreigner also use "rubbish" curse, haha)

"I am the it deserves to be marked with the ' Don ' t post after a large bottle of wine ' metatag-cort."
"I think the article should be labeled ' not to post '"-cortwinters
(AW Note: This has a good sense of humour, hehe)

"What is Bray smoking???"-phill Nacelli.
"What is the author smoking"-phillnacelli

"Bray is full of FUD and nothing else. He does work for SUN (no bias,ha,ha ...;) who have ' crappy ' applets on their side. He's just jealous, since Flex, CFMX, Dreameaver, Flash, Breeze and other'll make Adobe superior to m$ and Sun in the Mar Ket and quality. "-patrick Whittingham.
"The author must be a fool, that's all." He must have worked for Sun to speak for the worthless applets. He's just jealous. Since Flex, DW, flash| Breeze such as these can make adobe in the market and quality with sun and Microsoft to contend with a product after the emergence of a jealousy. ”
-patrick Whittingham.

"Must ' ve got his beard caught ' sandles again."
"Head's in the water,"-clark.
(AW Note: Da Cong should be the meaning of it, the original is a slang)

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The article is honored to have been recommended by Adobe China's 7yue. Now looking back at the debate, oh, some shudder, then Ajax is just a word of DHTML, see today ...

As a pure product creator (such as a product manager) or a developer (such as an interactive design engineer, a prototype development engineer), this may seem irrational, or even a reason to be dismissed by a superior. But as a user of flash, which benefits from Flash, I have to be deeply worried about Flash itself.

Flash is a tool, but I am not a cold-blooded businessman, using it, I feel the fun. Before there are many friends analysis, compared to Flash and its competitors, especially recently Luar two articles "2006-flash's future Not Come" and "from Flash to ajax--user experience and the development of the experience of the two or three" in the download is the position of Flash to the edge of the cliff. I would like to make some of my own points of view compared to the luar that have been involved in Ajax, and of course, I cannot compare myself with Luar either from experience or technology, but I strive to reach every conclusion rationally.

Three years ago, with the advent of FlashMX2004 and object-oriented scripting AS2.0, it seemed that the obstacles to Flash's entry into rich-client were thoroughly swept away. If I remember correctly, it was Macromedia who "created" a new, more atmospheric name for rich clients: RIA (Rich Internet application)

The advent of RIA seems to mark an era. FlashMX2004 seems to have become an essential tool for developing RIA overnight. AS2.0, the first time the development (development, mainly refers to the use as development application) as another important line of flash production (previously biased motion-design: Graphic animation design), it is that year, A large number of traditional developers to join the Ria Army, some of the AS1.0 of the strong supporters and even the master has been the fall, began to back up the OOP class. Flash from a simple interactive animation software, shake body into the Internet application development of the necessary tool, the moment burdened with a heavy "historical mission." However, whether the traditional flash designers and AS1.0-oriented process development experts, or take refuge in the new forces of FlashMX2004, are full of optimism about the future. Macromedia's Flashplayer penetration survey has pushed everyone's morale to the extreme. The demand for flash developers in the market is also soaring: My resume has been browsed more than a few times, and received a lot of phone calls, small companies mainly, there are large companies. Of course, I am not here to flatter myself, before the "character of the outbreak" of the phenomenon of rational interpretation and reflection. To understand as, I inadvertently stained with flash light bar!

Macromedia in April 2005 (last year), completing her most brilliant ending: being acquired by Adobe.

In fact, at the beginning of the acquisition, we all fear, Luar was also a sharp attack on Adobe history through the acquisition of the product line to adjust some of the bad lines, said it is likely to sneak flash to kill. But time has proved that adobe is not that stupid. None of the Three Musketeers was abandoned. Even the most dangerous fireworks,adobe. Our Macromedia loyalists have gradually embraced the brand of adobe. This April 16, no one has jumped out to "commemorate" the first anniversary of Macromedia's acquisition (if Adobe kills Flash after the acquisition or only 停缓 development, it will certainly provoke outrage). By the way, I also express my gratitude to Adobe, which seems to have absorbed the spirit and soul of Macromedia. The acquisition did not affect the launch of FLASH8, including the subsequent flashplayer8.5,flex2.0b,as3.0 and other labs projects also went well, and I witnessed AS3.0 's power:

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a group of ACTIONSCRIPT3 FP8.5 particle effect graphs

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Just as everything was progressing smoothly, an obscure rank appeared: AJAX.

This is the biggest competitor of Flash. As far as I'm aware, there's not a decent flash development book that mentions Ajax, and almost every Ajax bestseller mentions Flash, and some even directly awflasher.com Flash as an AJAX competitor. I know they say that there must be a basis, after all, Ajax and Flash have too many similarities: interface friendly, good user experience, no refresh + data security and so on ... After all, flash some of the technical barriers and the negative impact of the Ajax camp can be rapidly expanded, such as some good flash production staff, after all, the emphasis on graphic interface design; Traditional Web developers are hard to get into the flash field, no matter how smart he is, It is not possible to movieclip such a key concept overnight. Ajax, in turn, will be mentioned later.

Therefore, the related debate, the comparison will ensue. Perhaps the flash developers mentioned above are biased towards graphic design, or bluntly, lack of rigorous rationality, critical ability, so every time in the debate, it seems that Ajax has a slight upper hand. and Ajax the latest books are endless, illustrated, a lot of concepts. And it seems that the books sell well!