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February 22, 2008

MS, developers, experiences

MS, developers, experiences: Sometimes the pioneers explore a new frontier, and then others really develop its popularity. Sometimes. Macromedia may have pioneered the ideas of cross-platform distribution of richer, more interactive experiences, but Microsoft has always had a strong presence within corporate intranets and other closed environments -- that's a lot of developer power! It's a good thing overall that your local IT desk has the capability to use color, motion and sound... beats having them making text interfaces with funny buttons, or having them demand you change your browser to do your business. It's a good and necessary thing to bring the trailing edge along. I've been reading a lot more of these threads, and thinking about how things sometimes turn out, after reading some of these articles on the web today.... ;-)

Posted by JohnDowdell at February 22, 2008 02:21 PM

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Comments

it's probably worth keeping in mind how big Microsoft is and how much resources they can throw at something if they put their minds to it...

that and the fact that the Silverlight evangelist for my region (and a fellow workmate for a time), Scott Barnes, has had a long interest in a bunch of ideas that have eventually been echoed in Flex, dating back to the Flash OS days. I'm sure he's got a few thoughts to feed back into the mix for Silverlight...

"It’s going to be a big year for RIAs." notes Ryan Stewart...

or in other words, "Game On".

[jd sez: Same dynamics as VB and multimedia back then. (Although this time the resources are committed to the Yahoo deal.)]

Posted by: barry.b at February 23, 2008 03:21 AM

The more things change....

... it's because I came from a VB5 then VB6 background that sparked my interest in Flex in the Royale days - RAD development with UI componentry supported by a solid OO language.

Throw in AIR (with Flex components) and you've got what I had with VB6 for building desktop applications but better: cross-plafrorm (run32.dll on a Mac? LOL!), wider than WAN reach, easy install, and intrinsic richness.

the real important piece of the puzzle will be Thermo. Designers who aren't coders "want in" and this will create a big advantage.

I suppose it also comes down to if Microsoft has learnt to "walk and chew gum" yet.

Posted by: barry.b at February 24, 2008 08:20 PM

Posted by: barry.b at February 25, 2008 02:27 AM