Ajaxus place on the net

Today at .Net Developers Journal was posted this interesting article by Judy Lee. Check it out here as Judy makes fast comparison of these products related to their projects. At the bottom is the final conclusion table.
Today, RIA technology is widely used, also referred to as Rich Internet Clients (RICs). RICs provide the usability, responsiveness, and reuse of client/server applications with the deployment, manageability, and availability of a traditional Web application. Many websites are using DHTML and AJAX technology in HTML pages. Another very popular technology is Flash. How about Silverlight, though?

RIAs offer the flexibility and ease of use of an intelligent desktop application, and add the broad reach of traditional web applications with an entirely new kind of web experience that is engaging, interactive, lightweight, and flexible.

DHTML and AJAX

We used DHTML and AJAX technology in HTML pages in some of our .NET outsourced projects. However, we encountered problems of browser incompatibility. (For example, DOM is quite different in IE and in Safari.)

Although it is possible to make this kind of web application work in all browsers, it will take the developer much time and it is very difficult to maintain when the browsers update.

Flash

Another very popular technology is Flash, it doesn’t have any browsers compatibility problems, but it’s very hard to integrate with .NET. Integrating Flash demands that .NET developers make a special effort, and since our specialty is .NET software outsourcing, Flash is not the best choice for us.

Silverlight

Silverlight is a cross browser technology, so there’s no browser compatibility problem. Plus it integrates with .NET very well, so it is easier to use and develop. Silverlight does not have controls at present, but in version 2.0, many controls will be released for Web designers. Those controls will make Web development easier and faster.

Based on the features supported by Silverlight (see our chart below) more web page elements and properties can be controlled than DHTML&AJAX. Silverlight also offers a good user experiences.

Source

The Flash-y folks at Yahoo! have released a slew of Flash and Flex components in their ASTRA suite:
New Flash components:

* AlertManager — a user interface component that creates alert windows and manages their queue.
* AudioPlayback — a set of controls for audio playback.
* MenuBar — a component that renders hierarchical data as a row of buttons with nested menus (using the Menu component)

On the Flex front, we have:

* AutoCompleteManager is a component that manages a set of input controls, popping up suggestions when a user types into one of the fields. Instead of replacing TextInput fields with a specific AutoComplete control, you can simply point the manager to one or more TextInputs, and you’ll get a slick pop-up or auto-fill interaction.
* Color Pickers:
o ColorPlaneAndSliderPicker is a user interface component that allows the user to pick a color value. It combines a one-dimensional color slider with a two-dimensional color plane.
o ColorSliderPicker is a user interface component for Flex that allows the user to pick a color value. It combines a set of sliders where each slider represents a component of a colorspace. For example, a ColorSliderPicker displaying an RGB color includes a red slider, a green slider, and a blue slider.
o DropDownColorPicker is a user interface component for Flex that allows the user to pick a color value. Similar to the standard Flex ColorPicker control, the DropDownColorPicker also gives the developer the ability to completely change the dropdown control to give the user a variety of color views.
* IPv4AddressInput is a user interface component for Flex that allows the user to input an Internet Protocol version 4 address. This control includes a field for each separate byte and full keyboard navigation.
* TimeInput is a user interface component for Flex that allows the user to input a time value. This control include fields for hours, minutes, seconds, and AM/PM. Styling options allow the time to be presented in 12- or 24-hour formats.
* TimeStepper is a user interface component for Flex that allows the user to input a time value. This control include fields for hours, minutes, seconds, and AM/PM. Styling options allow the time to be presented in 12- or 24-hour formats. Up and down buttons allow the user to increase or decrease the currently selected field.

Among updates to the existing components:

* The Tree component has been updated with new functionality that makes it much easier to change node icons and control branch nodes (see examples).
* The Charts component now has animation, some adjustments to the PieChart live preview, and several bug fixes.

Read the source

Buzzword - Flash Word Processor

Just landed on their page and was suprised! This is actually a Flash Word processor! Where is the good old Ajax and HTML rich textareas?
As I kept reading this seems to be quite stable and good enough to be used as every day application.
Cant wait to be approved for an account and get my hands on this software!
Here is link to their web site.