On Sat, 23 Jul 2005 03:15:53 -0400 "Don Holeman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> This page did not work in Firefox, though it did in IE. Client side > scripting has a lot of drawbacks, browser dependency is only one of > them. > Flexibility and security are big issues too. I'm agreed that flash is > the best option for 3d and animation generally though it's got a steep > cost in both monitary terms and the learning curve. > > More generally, though, I wonder if we could be seeing the beginning > of the demise of the browser as we know it? Right now the paradigm of > browser plugins is the dominant mechanism for extending presentation, > but there's no reason to think this will always be the case. I don't mean to rant but : The continued rise of AJAX would seem to suggest that the browser is still going strong , at least to me anyway. Client side scripting has come on leaps and bounds since the dark old days of DHTML . There are several APIs for doing cross browser AJAX some of which feature drawing apis which will get you close to the flash look . It will undoubtably be harder than flash and not as slick. For me Flash is an unacceptable compromise in any website , sure it looks lovely and i don't deny for a second that some amazing things have been done with it. What gets me is that it doesn't degrade , at all . you don't have the plugin or even the latest version of the plugin you don't get the site . The success of the web for me is in its use of open standards , flash is going the wrong my IMHO. Ever tried navigating a flash site with speech reader , braille pad , set-top-box browser , text mode only or mobile phone ? I don't think plugins have been as important as you think , take google for example there flagship sites use no plugins at all and are some of the best and , most crucially , the busiest on the web. Amazon , yahoo and ebay are the same , simple standards compliant sites with good content. If you don't want to conquer the web then use flash but otherwise stick with the standards and help make them better. Toodle-pip Amias - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
