New face of the Web
We can’t deny the face of the web has changed much in the last few years. From graphic design models and concepts to the scripting and serve-side programming behind them, world wide web has evolved from more or less static content to heavy dynamic pages and later on to what we call rich media and interactive content.
Flash was the big hype of what I call “cute” content (client-side presentation that’s animated and/or interactive). Yet Flash has a few severe limitations: for dynamic content it must rely on sources that are outside it’s immediate rich (to pass content to ActionScript you call a server side language that sends XML/plain-text responses). That three languages/standards that one webdev must learn in order to build a site. Add to that the Javascript and SQL (which come without saying and also the graphics and CSS. For a larger group/company that’s no problem but in detail it takes all that knowledge to build small but cute site.
Since then people have been trying to simplify things. Javascript frameworks have been built to extend the simple JS. The AJAX platform was born for better delivery of server-side response without the need to reload. JSON came as a simple alternative to XML where the situation was too simple and XML became overkill for http communication.
Today several platforms have appeared to bring together the visual presentation and the idea behind AJAX. Microsoft’s Silverlight, Sun’s JavaFX, Adobe’s Flex and OpenLaszlo are only the most proeminent projects … and probably the only ones with a chance of adoption.
Silverlight is appealing. It builds on Javascript (yeah, ECMA, whatever, details) and a runtime environment to bring a new experience to the user. Practically no extra technology save for Javascript (already known to a capable webdev) and XAML (basically XML). Very appealing indeed, do cool stuff with things you already have.
Silverlight’s bad side: not really cross platform. Microsoft boasts Mac in addition to Windows, but Linux is left out. Sure, it’s all part of Microsoft’s fight against the famous open-source platform, but with Ubuntu getting great backing from Dell and Sun and others, isolationism is not a good policy. Two thumbs down for this. Also, it needs to separately install a runtime. That might be solved in the future when Silverlight will be available readily just as FlashPlayer is now, but for that Microsoft needs to acknowledge Firefox, Opera and Linux. And then there’s all the mobile platforms … Microsoft needs to work a lot to make this viable.
Sun’s JavaFX is not very far from Silverlight. Literally months-old, this wonderchild sounds just as appealing but without all the strings attached. Java is here and we need not look further. Bad side? It’s the youngest and like my father told me before I left for college: “Grow up!!”
Flex and OpenLaszlo are related. They also build on AJAX bringing it close to Flash. My main objection is again, the need for extras: ActionScript and the FlashPlayer plugin. Sure enough, they are built to simplify the need for AS and FlashPlayer is basically a prerequisite nowadays for navigation, but still, why shouldn’t things run out-of-the box if possible? That’s why Linux has desktop versions …
In the mean time, I’ll stick to the simple AJAX frameworks, DOJO & the like, they do a lot of effects in Javascript and most of them are mature, cross-platform and capable of doing all the stuff the above can, but it takes longer. Still, until these children grow up, there’s not much choice.