All of our internal projects are now RIA's...I'm on the third one...here is my opinion inline below...
So far I my list of cons is: - More expensive to develop >> Initially, absolutely. Unless you have folks with the skillset in-house. However, with each passing project, I believe it to be "cheaper" not just in development hours but weighed against results. Mileage will vary on the skill and determination of the group in question. ;-) - Requires more developers >> Not necessarily. We haven't hired any newbies...but we're taking a hit on training. - No application consistency >> We've begun developing our own "flash component set" that contains all our skinned components and new ones built from scratch which are used in all projects and offer beautiful consistency. - Requires a plug-in >> Agreed. I believe this only to be a factor on external deployments....and how much of a factor depends on project in question. - Initial Load Times Increased Dramatically >> Disagree. While MM's site is slow in comparison to straight HTML...our internal apps are not...the login page loads instantly...and after the login process the load time is slightly longer than straight HTML...not from bandwidth perspective but from the hit you take from component initialization. KEEP IT SIMPLE. - Requirements for internet connection and computer speeds increased >> Don't think so...so far each of our complete apps have been < 100kb in total size. - We rely on a sole company to continue and support the technology (MM) rather than a consensus (WC3) *No one can buy the wc3 and discontinue HTML >> True I guess...personally I don't give a hoot as long as the progression is systematic and beneficial in the end. >> My Cons >> 1) Component initialization is slow. >> 2) Drives me nuts when different components have different version of base classes...and when flash asks you whether or not to "replace" existing version...it's like Russian roulette. ;-) My list of pros: - After initial load bandwidth can be used more efficiently >> pure service based architecture. It's sweet - Aesthetics >> Folks love our new stuff. Do we have any case studies comparing RIAs to HTML applications? I've heard the pitch numerous times from MM in the last year. I've been hearing it for about 4 year (Generator). Seriously I'm not trying to trash MM or RIAs... I'm just trying to develop a set of rules so I know when it _is_ justified to develop and RIA. Let's please keep this out of the realms of business politics of MM and how they treat developers and have a discussion solely on RIAs. Adam Wayne Lehman Web Systems Developer Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Distance Education Division -----Original Message----- From: Dave Watts [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, March 07, 2003 11:34 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: RE: The New Macromedia Website > > However, to put things bluntly, HTML sucks. It sucks really > > bad. It's the worst thing to happen to application interfaces > > in the short history of computing, next to the QWERTY keyboard. > > The success of HTML interfaces has been in spite of this > > awful step backwards in interface design, not because of it. > > HTML doesn't suck. It's a beautifully simple means of presenting > textual information. And with CSS, the potential is there for > it to be presented just as elegantly as any print-based layout. > However, HTML wasn't designed to function as an application > user interface. Which then gets to everything else you said. Yes, I just assumed that people would understand that I was criticizing HTML as an interface for applications. It's fine for content. Dave Watts, CTO, Fig Leaf Software http://www.figleaf.com/ voice: (202) 797-5496 fax: (202) 797-5444 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| 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 Get the mailserver that powers this list at http://www.coolfusion.com Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
