Mikey said >> As far as a browser plugin goes, what are you suggesting? On its face, wouldn't it be more "where-the-world-is-going" compliant to have RR follow the lead of Morfik and natively build AJAX and/or Flash apps? <<
I suggested before that Ajax/Flash targets were a possibility for delivering applications built in Rev. In the current thread I was just quoting an excerpt from an old post of mine last year. I'm hoping that there could be wider discussion of these issues since Runrev have recently voiced an interest in seeing what people want in terms of interfacing with browsers.
Being able to produce an Ajax app from other source languages is something that Morfik say they have been working on for a few years (5 or 6, can't remember exactly). Laszlo are effectively doing that too - being able to produce a Flash app or an Ajax/DHTML app. And even though Laszlo may have been able to produce Ajax versions of apps in some 6 months or so of development, the Flash versions of their apps are still much better than the Ajax version. Furthermore, since the Laszlo architecture was designed so that it was independent of the provisioning platform (Flash), I think it would be quite an undertaking for Runrev to try to do something in this area.
I guess Runrev need to find out what the majority want: to be able to deliver their Transcript-driven 'native look and feel' apps via a browser, or to deliver a web application that was an Ajax version of a Rev app. I can see benefits from both kinds of app. But since Runrev have hitherto seemed reluctant to build a plug-in (which I'm guessing is less work than producing an engine to produce an Ajax app), it seems unlikely to me that they are going to be in the position to do both.
Then again, since Lynn brought this up a few weeks ago, it doesn't seem to me that there has been _that_ much discussion of these issues, so maybe most people are just not interested. An enhancement request has been entered in Bugzilla (http://support.runrev.com/ bugdatabase/show_bug.cgi?id=3940) for a browser plugin - so I'm guessing that is actually what most people are interested in with regard to deliverinig Rev apps via browsers.
I'm going a different route myself - I'm relying on Rev to provide the front-end to what are dynamically produced stacks. I still feel that Ajax apps are often ugly, behave in strange ways, and are problematic. I think there are also some problems with Flash - I've tried using Laszlo before and the edit-compile cycle was soooo slow in my experience, and I much prefer to provide the user with native look and feel.
Of course, Richard and Andre are usually quite quick to point out that the problem with a plug-in is that someone has still got to visit a host site and download it and install it before they can see any cool Rev content. And they are right. It is the existing ubiquity of Flash/Javascript that makes them instantaneous platforms for dynamic apps.
However, I suppose it could well be argued that there has been considerable demand from Rev users for a browser plugin, but very little demand for something like U3 apps. So maybe the time of the plugin has finally arrived. In
It would be good if we could have more discussion of what the possibilitiies might be.
Bernard _______________________________________________ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
