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Monday, May 14, 2007

Misunderstanding RIA Some More

Peter Lacy is pitting Apollo/Flex vs. the web. Please don't. That is mistaken.

Adobe "gets" the web. These components run "on" the web, and are "of" the web. Yes, they have ways to use things in a non-web way, just as Java and C# have. But they fully support the web, just like Java and C# do. They are on, of, and for "the web".

Here's how you do it: write the server as if any kind of web-able client could consume it. Write the client in Apollo or just Flex to consume that server's resources.

OK? That is not "versus" the web in any way, shape, or form.

3 comments:

asbjornu said...

What being "on and of the web" is, is a question of definition, but if you think hypertext and hyperlinking are important features of the web, then supporting these features is in my opinion required to be "on and of the web".

"Supporting" the web in terms of being able to open TCP connections over port 80 has nothing to do with this. That's something CURL has done for plenty of years, without being either "on" nor "of the web".

Or, if you mean running in a browser is what is required to make something "on and of the web", then I guess Microsoft .doc files are just as "on and of the web" as Apollo/Flex is. They share all the same characteristics. They are binary and proprietary files, run through a proprietary plugin within the browser. If you don't agree with this assertion, you should investigate your own opinion a bit and adjust it accodingly, because in my humble opinion, you're both ignorant and wrong.

Bob Haugen said...

Patrick,
What is your definition of the Web? Just servers offering HTTP interactions?
Or do you also include bookmarkability?
How about hypertext as the engine of state?
How about View Source as a learning medium?

Anonymous said...

"write the server as if any kind of web-able client could consume it. Write the client in Apollo or just Flex to consume that server's resources."

...then visit the URL of the Apollo/Flex application. What, I need a plugin! All right, maybe there's enough value in this app for that to be worth it to me. What, there's no runtime for IE6 on a Win2K machine! Hmmm, I wonder what's hot on Reddit?

To be serious, Patrick, I get that Apollo's working for you. And I think that's fantastic. I'm not Adobe bashing or even Microsoft bashing. But Apollo and Silverlight, while making it easy to develop rich applications, require proprietary runtimes - that do not have the reach ordinary HTML, CSS, and JS do.

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Portland, Oregon, United States
I'm usually writing from my favorite location on the planet, the pacific northwest of the u.s. I write for myself only and unless otherwise specified my posts here should not be taken as representing an official position of my employer. Contact me at my gee mail account, username patrickdlogan.