
How and Why AJAX, Not Java, Became the Favored Technology for RIAs - ashu
http://ajaxworldmagazine.com/read/333329.htm
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mynameishere
It's too bad. Javascript-in-the-browser and Ajax are both nasty hacks that
force programmers to do all sorts of shameful things. And the result is--wanky
html tricks. Java, for its faults, is fairly clean when run in the applet
environment. It has every superiority over JITBAJAX, except for install issues
and a chunky load process. Yahoo games seems like just about the only applet
success story. Of course, back in the day, non-trivial Applets tended to be
too large for the dial-up accounts people had. At least that is changed.

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epall
Wow...I was pulling for XUL to replace the Ajax mess we have today, but this
Flex thing looks like a serious contender. What a concept: sane, debuggable
webapps that look slick, too!

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leoc
So what about Flex and, especially, Apollo
(http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Apollo) then? Is Apollo likely to
achieve mass adoption? Would startups be well advised to consider building
applications on it?

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leoc
I can't find the reference now, but I *think* I've just read something
suggesting that the install process for an Apollo applet will involve an
"install-this-application?" confirmation dialog followed by a download of 30
seconds or so. If so then Apollo's less promising than I hoped. That kind of
install may be low-friction by desktop-app standards but it doesn't compare to
the ease of starting a browser-based AJAX or Flash application. (Consider how
easy it is to use maps.google.com for the first time.)

Surely it will at least be that Apollo applications will run untrusted by
default, and that an already-installed app will start automatically whenever
you take your browser to the URL you downloaded it from?

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male_salmon
I thought this article was about how Flex was the favored technology for RIAs
(as opposed to AJAX).

