REALbasic is far from the best way to develop an application for *any*
of its target platforms. But it is the best -- because pretty much the
only -- way to develop for *all* of them.
I dunno about that- Java, Flash (it has an IDE of it's own), and for the
web specifically html/php/a ton of other technologies. I think RB is
great, just not for this context.
Adding Flash to the compiler targets would not alter that statement in
any way. And I would probably develop the UI for a flash app to be
rather different from a desktop application. But if I could still
share much of the code between the two, I would be *way* ahead of the
game.
Have you ever used the Flash IDE? Does it look like _anything_ graceful
is happening there? As it develops, sure, it might be easier to tie into
something like RB, but at this stage I think it'd likely be a huge, time
consuming, mess. Meanwhile I hit F1 to bring up the language reference
and there seems to be an even chance of three things happening- Nothing,
the reference pops up, or a bizarre character is inserted where my
cursor is. Better is the enemy of done, and more is often the enemy of
better.
OpenLaszlo is very, very nice. And if I ever get a chance, I might
work on some technologies to help integrate it with REALbasic
applications. But I can't reuse *anything*.
I dunno about that. You can reuse your OpenLaszlo code inside
OpenLaszlo, and your RB within RB. =) Seriously though, you could have
your RB app doing gHod knows what at this end, your OL interface over
here, and exchange data via SOAP/XML. Or write a straight web version,
or whatever. The world is your oyster and all that.
I think it would be a compelling offering for many businesses to be
able to come in and say you'll write them an application that runs on
any of their desktops and you'll also give them a web version, too.
Sure, but I think you have to accept two things- Flash is really pretty
limited when compared to any programming language, and at best will be
full of workarounds and sad limitations, so that even if you could build
to a Flash version of your app, you'll likely have to redesign the whole
thing anyway, only to end up with something inferior. The second thing
is web programming isn't that tough and working with more robust tools
there would allow you to deliver a product that won't cause someone to
curse your name, plus broaden your programming experience. The idea of
one tool for every job is naive at best. Sure I can chip through a tree
limb with a Swiss Army Knife, but if I remember to bring something
appropriate, I'll spare myself a great deal of pain.
And another thing: a Flash target would let you write applications for
a lot of handhelds and other devices. I have a Nokia N800 (Linux
handheld web terminal). I would *love* to be able to run my REALbasic
applications on it.
Yeah, while a nifty idea, you're bound to hit the same limitations I
mentioned in the paragraph above. The roots of Flash aren't "Hey,
functionality", instead it's more like "Hey, pretty, and slow running
even over the LAN.". It's come a long ways, but it still isn't a
programming language, it's a media tool. This isn't to say that you
can't do whatever you might have in mind, just that it may not actually
be a good way to do it, or save you any time at all.
In the end, I truly don't care, this is just my take on it. Some people
still swear that Access is a valid format for multi-user databasing,
that Internet Explorer isn't a piece of trash, and that there was
nothing wrong with Open Transport in OS 7.5.2. Hell, eventually
something that sounds retarded to me is bound to be right, and this
could be that time.
G'night,
Fargo
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