The web is in a hurry… with the web 2.0, the web was revived and reborn, not only on design matters but also on programming, frameworks were made, and still have been made lately, to ensure a best and fast web development, standards compliance and easiest integration with AJAX.
Every web language suffer an upgrade based on web 2.0 standards, which relies on usability, simplicity and great web design. Although, the most used languages are PHP and ASP.NET, another ones born with the web 2.0 era. Ruby on Rails are one example, it’s a language simple to deploy, mostly of the code are simply deployed with a command and it builds all you need (Javascript code, HTML code and server code) at once. Of course, if you like a more deep development you need to know a little ore than the commands to generate most of the code, but sure it’s easier than to do everything.
PHP have also some frameworks which leads to a more quickly development, such as CakePHP, Code Igniter, Nature PHP, Symphony and so on…
Some of these frameworks are still under development and been improved at every upgrade that they suffer. Also, most of them, uses Javascript fameworks to make the AJAX calls and any interaction on the webpage.
When web 2.0 born, some rules were applied to web design and development, and some improvements were made, trying to make web rich without compromise navigation experience for the user. So, with web 2.0 also borns some Javascript frameworks that resembling some interactive experiences from Flash, but without the “time and slow” of Flashtm.
Later, as a response for this improvements Adobetm launches Flex SDK which is a mix of Javascript, HTML, server language and Flash, making a major improvement on the RIA app development, however Flex isn’t as easy to learn as others languages and still has the problem of Flash Plugin in every browser that user try to access that application. In other hand, Flex made possible the idea of having an Desktop Application along with an online Application and Adobe played another card launching AIR Player, which makes possible any Flex App runs on any PC with Windows or Linux or MAC with the AIR installed on it.
Also Microsoft wants to play at the web development at web 2.0.
As you may know Microsoft developed ASP and later ASP.net, which brings the first time idea of Framework, much more earlier than any other popular framework, however, the Microsoft problem is the close architecture of the code and the development process, which is easier if you use the “Microsoft Development Tools”, such as Microsoft Visual Studiotm. Later, and instigated by Adobe, Microsoft launches Silverlight, which promise to make interactivity on the web and in the PC.
Lately, a new life for Flash and web application rise with the bon of the fHTML. This new technology based on simple HTML programming converts this simple HTML into Flash on-the-fly. The good thing is, you can do your programming as usual and then display the page as Flash, since you can use programming languages along with your XHTML.
Pros
- You don’t have to learn a new programming language to build a Flash website (ActionScript);
- You do a stunning website with almost no need of buying expensive softwares
- More simple and less pain on renewing layouts;
- More dynamic web apps with resource to DB n a easy way.
Cons
- The visitors must have the Flash plugin installed in order to see the website;
- There are, still, the waiting time for loading the website;
- If you have a slow computer, or a slow internet connection, you still have to wait and you still view the website or any element in a “streaming way”.
Anyway, they are trying to make the developers and webdesigners lifes easier and I really hope that they get it…
