I completely agree with you Bryan. I was very surprised that MM left any HTML in the site at all, and think that generated most of the problems. I think part of the motivation was that they have some standard page layouts that wouldn't work in a pure flash environment. Sure, this was a 'complete' rewrite of the site, but there is a lot that hasn't changed (at least it seems to me). MM.com is a HUGE app. Really a bunch of apps, most pretty large in their own right. A complete restructuring would have been enormously time intensive, and probably not economical.
Any way you cut it, Flash is a lot more expensive to develop than HTML. Because of that expence, it's going to be a long time before HTML is gone from most large sites. This is not unlike all the legacy systems that are currently running companies all over the world today. It's not because people like running old, outdated stuff, it's because they can't afford to change it all. My personal opinion is that if you have any flash, the entire site is flash, excepting perhaps a animated logo in the corner or such asthetic things. I've seen a lot of really good flash sites, but I've not seen many (if any) that used HTML-embeded Flash to a good end. Even the old MM site was quite annoying to me, having to wait for the flash on the HTML pages all the time. I think MM is pushing the right direction with the new site, but it's going to get a lot of criticism (including mine) and have a lot of problems because it didn't go the full monty. However, we don't know what went into the back-end of the site, and I think that's important. I guarentee that they had a lot of problems with CFCs, Flash Remoting, and whatever else, and the end result is going to be a set of kick-ass updaters for all products involved in their site redux here in a couple months. barneyb > -----Original Message----- > From: Bryan Stevenson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2003 4:34 PM > To: CF-Talk > Subject: Re: New MM.com > > > I've heard a lot of slagging of RIAs and MM's new usage of RIAs. I think > it's VERY important to differentiate between 2 types of RIAs. > > Type 1 - The Hybrid > This is what MM has just released. It's a mix of traditional web > technologies (HTML,JavaScript, CSS, etc.). > > Type 2 - Pure Flash > This is what I consider to be a true RIA. It runs full screen (or full > browser) and all naviagtion etc. is handled in Flash. > > I have only been building the type 2 variety and have not seen any of the > slowness issues folks are describing on the new MM site. So perhaps there > is something to Chris's comment about having to load 48 files for > MMs type 1 > RIA vs. loading 1 SWF for what I call type 2. > > > IMHO the type 2 variety is where it's at. > > my 2 cents CDN > > Bryan Stevenson B.Comm. > VP & Director of E-Commerce Development > Electric Edge Systems Group Inc. > t. 250.920.8830 > e. [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > --------------------------------------------------------- > Macromedia Associate Partner > www.macromedia.com > --------------------------------------------------------- > Vancouver Island ColdFusion Users Group > Founder & Director > www.cfug-vancouverisland.com > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Chris Kief" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "CF-Talk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2003 4:07 PM > Subject: RE: New MM.com > > > > >Overall, bandwidth use is not excessive (at least for my > standards), but > > >the speed is not good either. Part of that appears to be due > to the high > > >number of requests, part of that is that some requests take long on the > > >server, and part of that is probably that a Duron 800 is apparently not > > >fast enough anymore. > > > > Not sure if you checked out the individual files but the homepage is > broken > > up into multiple swf and xml documents (I show 22 swf and 9 xml). To be > > complete, there are also 1 html, 2 css, 3 js, and 11 gifs for a total of > 48 > > files and 251KB. > > > > I was speculating with a colleague that the poor performance that some > > people were seeing had to do with the number of files being > downloaded as > > well as the fact that the Flash player needs to load and parse the 9 xml > > files (although the player's xml handling is greatly improved in the > latest > > versions). Speed of the client machine probably has a direct > impact on the > > player's ability to do this efficiently and quickly. > > > > I'll be curious to see if this structure changes in the future. I'm also > > anxious to read Sean Corfield's articles on the architectural decisions > > behind the site. > > > > I'm hoping that MM publishes something along the lines of > "here's what we > > decided to do first" and then down the line "here's what we found didn't > > work and here's what we did to improve things". RIAs are pretty much > > uncharted territory and I'm very interested in hearing their experiences > in > > building and tuning the site. > > > > chris > > > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=4 FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq This list and all House of Fusion resources hosted by CFHosting.com. The place for dependable ColdFusion Hosting. Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
