Gary Edwards's Library tagged ajax →  View Popular

Is Adobe AiR a Virtual Desktop?  We expect a VD to run an alien OS and those OS specific applications.  With AiR 2.0 it seems Adobe has ditched the "OS" component of a VD, and the OS specific applications, but is quite capable of running AiR based applications and information services that would otherwise have been designed for a specific OS environment.  

Another way of looking at this would be to say that VD's are designed to run existing OS and OS specific applications, while AiR is desinged to run newly written OS independent applications that have one very important advantage over legacy applications and information systems;  AiR speaks the language of the Web 3.0.  

This is WebKit HTML5-CSS3 with an advanced but Air specific version of JavaScript called "ActionScript".  What Adobe doesn't do is provide support for other critically important aspects of the WebKit interactive Web 3.0 model: support for Canvas/SVG!  Adobe continues to push the proprietary SWF interactive vector graphics format.  

Note that Microsoft's Silverlight universal runtime does not support anything in the WebKit Web 3.0 model!  It's all proprietary.

excerpt: For the first time since 2007, Adobe has updated its Air platform, released recently in beta with a slew of new features. The features include support for detection of mass storage devices, advanced networking capabilities, ability to open a file with its default application, improved cross-platform printing, and a bunch of other things that you probably won’t really notice in any other way other than your Adobe working significantly more efficiently and smoothly than before.

The 2.0 version of Air also will be able to support HTML5 and CSS3, due to an upgrade of its WebKit. Developers will also be happy to know that they can create Air applications that can be installed through a native installer.

Air’s changes have seen it morph into something of an ‘operating system sitting on an operating system’. According to one review:  “The ‘write once run anywhere’ ideal is becoming

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Adobe-Air WebKit Silverlight AJAX

Lots of links and articles for using Ajax, JavaScript and CSS: Chris Coyier and David Walsh. Tutorials galore. Also collection of stylesheets to download

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ajax css javascript christopher-coyier tutorial

InfoWorld's Tom Yager makes the case for the WebKit visual document model over AJAX. The problem with AJAX as he sees it is that it's JavaScript heavy. And that breaks precious Web interoperability. He makes the point that if something can be done in CSS, it should. He also argues that WebKit is the best tool because the document model is that of advanced HTML5 and CSS3.<br><br>

"... These [WebKit] browsers also share a stellar accelerated JavaScript interpreter that makes the edit/run/debug cycle go faster. They are also the only browsers that deliver on CSS4 and HTML5 standards (with some elements that are proposed to the W3C standards body). Sites that are visually rich may start sprouting "best viewed with Safari" banners until other browsers catch up. The banner would also let users know that your site is optimized for iPhone....."<br><br>

Humm. Did you catch that? CSS4!!! I guess he's referring to the WebKit penchant for putting advanced graphical transitions and animations into CSS instead of relying on a device specific or OS specific API.<br><br>

Placing the visual interface instructions in the documents presentation layer (CSS4) is a revolutionary idea. The WebKit model will go a long way towards creating a global interoperability layer that rides above lower device, OS, browser and application specifics. So yes, by all means let's go with CSS4 :)<br><br>

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webkit web-applications web-design Safari Chrome Tom-yager Ajax JavaScript

Awesome commentary in the must read category. JC nails it; starting with "layout"! ....... "We were both part of the same team and he was creating some UI elements that I was to wire up. As I sat there (in awe) watching him work I realized that much of his considerable skill was rooted in fundamentals not unlike the art of programming. Of course, there are design skills that are intuitive that can't be "learned." But, that can also be said of the logical clarity found in a really elegant data model or a brilliant inheritance tree. I am certainly no designer, but I have observed the more creative among us for several years and have gained some insight into their world. In this article I'll share some basic principles that can help raise your design acumen and improve the experience of your users...... "

Layout
I'd like to attack my goal of imparting design wisdom by breaking the topic into four buckets. The first is layout.

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ajax open-web ria silverlight layout air webkit

Just because the web has been open so far doesn't mean that it will stay that way. Flash and Silverlight, arguably the two market-leading technology toolkits for rich media applications are not open. Make no mistake - Microsoft and Adobe aim to have their proprietary plug-ins, aka pseudo-browsers, become the rendering engines for the next generation of the Web.

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open-web flash silverlight ajax html-css ria

Rombla is a powerful online WYSIWYG flash-site building RIA. Created and hosted by the folks at Piria, the app is geared towards bridging the gap between web designers and their clients. Who needs a CMS when you can give your clients a tool that lets them see the site as it is, make the simple changes they want, and republish it immediately?

Rombla is a full-featured flash-site creation tool.

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ajax ria flash

XUL Layout Model differs from CSS 2.1!!!!!! They broke with CSS to develop the XUL layout model.

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xul ajax mozilla dom html-css

Must read: "This blog post is part of a new, semi-regular series called Fixing the Web. The goal is to highlight these issues, identify potential solutions, and have a dialogue. I don't claim to have the answers for the situation we are in. However, I do know this -- if there is any community that potentially has what it takes to solve these issues I believe it's the Ajax and JavaScript communities, which is why this is a perfect place to have these discussions.

To start, I see four areas that are broken that must be fixed: ..... "

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javascript html-css ajax w3c

Great tutorials on the aptana.tv page. Aptana Studio is the premier IDE for Today's Web offering integrated language support for HTML, DOM, JavaScript and CSS, embedded development platforms and databases for PHP, Jaxer, Ruby on Rails, and Python. Plus support for emerging platforms that use Ajax like Adobe AIR and Apple iPhone. Aptana Studio is free, open source software based on the Eclipse tools platform.

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ajax HTML-CSS

By enabling human collaboration and innovation on a scale never seen before, Web 2.0 is becoming Enterprise 2.0. Here's why no business will be left untouched. (This eBook is filled with stats, projections, and analysis)

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collaboration ajax webkit

An AJAX version of the Flash IDE. Incredible!

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flash ajax html-css-svg

While the workgroup failed to decide between “choice” (Microsoft's mantra) and “openness” (the ODF mantra), predictably punting this question to a new Electronic Records Committee, it did issue a number of interesting findings, the most important of which reads as follows:

In the office suite format debate, there currently is no compelling solution for the State’s openness needs. The State needs open standards and formats. Simultaneously, the State needs electronic records to be preserved in their original formats whenever possible. Many Request for Public Comments commenters, particularly in response to the e-discovery questions, stated preserving a record in the same format as it was created results in a more faithful record and diminishes the possibility of expensive e-discovery disputes. This is important to ensure future generations of New Yorkers can access the permanently valuable electronic records being created today. Moreover, State Archives emphasizes creating records in open formats makes it easier to preserve their essential characteristics and demonstrates they are authentic (i.e., they were created in the course of State government business and have not been altered without proper authorization).

I imagine that the workgroup must have found some level of solace in arriving at the one conclusion that all the experts seem to agree on: that electronic documents should be published using the same format in which they are created. If this principle held true for state documents, it would reduce the job of the new Electronic Records Committee to deciding between three alternatives: (1) require all state agencies to create and publish their documents in OOXML, (2) require all state agencies to create and publish their documents in ODF, or (3) allow each agency to decide which of these formats, OOXML or ODF, they will use in creating and publishing their documents. Unfortunately, this central assumption is incorrect, and adopting it as a basis for further deliberation will lead to a deeply defective

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odf ooxml pdf cdf ajax webkit

summary of best web sites for "Web Design"

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webkit web-design css3 javascript tutorials html5 ajax

This document defines how SVG effects are extended to apply to CSS-formatted elements. In particular, it makes the 'filter', 'mask' and 'clip-path' CSS properties and SVG paint servers applicable to CSS-formatted elements (such as HTML elements).

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css svg html ajax javascript

Adobe vs. Microsoft
Gartner analyst Ray Valdes said 90 percent of the top global 1,000 companies have yet to deploy any sort of RIA, while 90 percent of the top 100 consumer Web sites have already done so using the nonproprietary and more simple AJAX format.

That opportunity has Microsoft eyeing current leader Adobe for business that extends beyond Silverlight and into the sale of design tools along with server and database software to enable these new applications.

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flash silverlight ria ajax

a framework for JavaScript applications called
ViewsHandler. ViewsHandler is not another JavaScript templating solution but works on the assumption that in most cases you'll have to create a lot of HTML initially but you'll only have to change the content of some elements dynamically as new information gets loaded or users interact with the app. So instead of creating a lot of HTML over and over again all I wanted to provide is a way to create all the needed HTML upfront and then have easy access to the parts of the HTML that need updating.

The first thing you'll need to do to define your application is to create an object with the different views and pointers to the methods that populate the views:

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javascript dom html ajax

One of the comments to this post really caught my eye: ...... "Flash has always had better rendering consistency across platforms. However, HTML is much easier to build.

I always wondered why someone (Adobe?) doesn’t build a HTML/CSS/JS to Flash bridge. Sort of like sIfr but for the whole page. I really thought AIR could be that bridge. Write once, and render anywhere. :) ......... "

The thing is, the Adobe AiR runtime implements the WebKit layout engine. Whcih means WebKit documents based on HTML/CSS/JS should render just fine.

The real question will be how Adobe AiR handles the EcmaScript mess! Will they go with the ActionSript 3 version of JS - the one that is optimised for Tamarin? Or will they scale back to the MIcrosoft-Yahoo crippled version of official EcmaScript? My guess is that they push forward with ActiveScript 3 and try to convince WebKit and Mozilla groups to carry the open sourced Tamarin JiT. That would protect AiR developers as well as those who are seriously concerned about the future of the open web going forward.

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open-web webkit ajax flash air

Review of emerging CSS technologies and techniques. Includes Tools and Frameworks: Skybound's "Stylizer", YAML, CSS Cacheer. Best Practices, CSS3 and Beyond, the Browsers,

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CSS Ajax WebKit

Lengthy artilce from the OpenAjax Alliance summarizing HTML, Ajax and the future of the Open Web. Very well referenced. Lots of whitepapers and links

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ajax openweb acid webkit

Response to questions about RiA vs AJAX.

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ria ajax webkit