Just a few comments on the Flash Player.
On 29 Aug 2006, at 01:08, Alain Farmer wrote:
3. Consider Flash: It's already pre-installed
on most systems, and can be used to make some
great UIs.
It's a good choice when plugins are an option. Flash
can make some pretty *flashy* stuff. :) It is not an
xCard, and it has a steep learning curve, and it is
commercial software that you gotta purchase in order
to author your Flash content, but... it's now and it
works, and its plugin is bundled with many browsers,
so.. go for it! :)
Adobe/Macromedia have a product named Flex which can produce swf
files for playback by the Flash player. This is quite a different
development environment from Flash. For example, there's no timeline.
While it's not an xTalk/xCard by my definition, it is built around
the placing and scripting of visual components. (Scripting is in
ActionScript = JavaScript). There is even a "viewstack" component
that lets you implement what might be considered the equivalent of
cards.
I think until recently, Flex was a *very* expensive product, intended
for enterprise customers only, and needing a particular server-side
component. With version 2, there is now a free compiler-only version,
and a $500 or so development version (named Flex Builder) built on
top of Eclipse. There are no server-side reqirements beyond a
standard web server. The marketing blurb describes it as suitable
for RIAs (Rich Internet Applications), and not flashy-stuff. :-).
Sorry if I'm sounding like an Adobe spokesperson (too late??). But I
think it's an interesting product, and right now, it's the only thing
I see that lets me put in a browser what I would normally make in a
standalone with Rev.
Cheers
Dave
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