discussing Flex, Flash, XUL, Neuromancer (_javascript_ Remoting), desktop
applications and XUL.
I for one was/am critical of the Flash RIA as not being good enough --
resulting in a heavy or sticky feel to the UI.
I realize the advantages of Flash, especially its consistency and
ubiquity -- I only wish it were more usable and more programmable.
Flex (at some cost) appears to address the programmability issue.
Also, there are hints that the next CFMX will include some Flash
programming capabilities.
That's all well and good, if Flash can deliver acceptable performance
-- if it can't then I will look elsewhere for RIA solutions.
I like MACR, Their products are good to excellent, their people are
great -- I have had no negative experiences with either.
That said, Flash still disappoints me -- I would like to see it
succeed. I would like to be able to use it.
But there is something very wrong.
Several days ago I mentioned that the Flex code explorer contained one
of the slowest menu trees I'd ever seen.
This is one of the apps that MACR uses to showcase the FlexFlash RIA.
It just isn't fast enough to be usable, especially when you consider
the amount of client resources it consumes to attain poor UI
performance. My particular criticism is with the expanding and
collapsing of the folders -- where only client-side RIA processing is
performed,
Two days ago I learned about XUL.
XUL looks like a possible RIA solution & that too, has been discussed
in other threads.
To prove to myself that the Flash Tree example was, indeed a poor
performer, I decided to write a comparable tree menu in XUL. All I
really did was create (part of) the tree. Selecting an
item/document/leaf node doesn't do anything. I nested the folders 3
levels deep and duplicated the "Component Library" outer node enough
times to get a tree larger than the code explorer. This is enough to
compare expand/collapse with the Flash tree.
Here it is. You need a current Mozilla or FireFox browser tto render
XUL.
http://67.124.145.42/XUL/XULSampleTreeMenu.xul
Put this up, side-by-side with the Flex Code Explorer at:
http://macromedia.com/software/flex/?promoid=home_prod_flex_111703#
Expand enough folders on each to get the window scrolling. Then
expand/collapse the top node.
Why is Flash so slow?
Thoughts!
Dick
P.S. Display source and you will see the entire XUL program.
P.P.S. The XUL page may be slow to download -- The site is on my
development machine which is quite busy -- JRUN/CFMX/MySQL,
VirtualPC/WIN XP, 2 streamers, lots of browser windows & a few desktop
apps
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