[UPHPU] Are we facing another standards storm?

[cole at colejoplin.com]

Well, we have to all admit that the new tools and technology choices  
are positive and exciting. Here's my humble opinion.

I'm a "what have you done for me lately" guy. I tend to start with the  
project requirements, and THEN decide on the technology that makes  
sense for it. Because of that, I often mix technologies. In fact it is  
common for us to have HTML/Javascript/AJAX/Flash/PHP on the vast  
majority of our new pages.

I like Flash. It's simple, small, and accomplishes highly creative and  
highly technical feats. It is a major force. Ask anyone doing web ads  
what they think of Flash. I'm not going to let the word "proprietary"  
scare me. Java and OSX are also proprietary, and I'm not concerned  
about them either.

I think the real danger is "predatory", which Microsoft clearly is.  
Their intentions are as dishonest as any technology company on the  
planet. Considering that HP/Dell are going back to XP speaks volumes  
about the direction Microsoft is going. Using .Net or ASP is (IMO) the  
worst possible technology choice for the web.

As far as Silverlight being real competition to Flash? Well, forget  
the creative community, they hate Microsoft with a real passion. Those  
Mac commercials are only funny because we all know how totally true  
they are. Even if Silverlight works (which currently it doesn't), no  
one creative will develop anything on it. All those excited Microsoft  
programmers cannot change that fact.

On a positive note, I really like AJAX. It does some things I can't do  
in Flash. Specifically, it's not anchored to the movie space. And  
people are finally turning Javascript back on. That's got your  
client-side. Java only makes sense to me as a server-side technology.  
I like Ruby and Python, but they don't give me anything I can't get  
elsewhere, so why bother?

I think Flex is interesting in the RIA arena, because it is designed  
to work together with other technologies, like PHP, Java, and AJAX.  
I'm giving Flex a VERY serious look right now, as it's a technology  
combiner and a technology partner. You're not locked in. But RIAs are  
not for everyone.

Apollo is really a desktop development play. We'll have to see what  
kind of place it makes for itself, but it's not really on the web. It  
can gather data from the web, but so can most desktop apps. By the  
same logic, Javascript for a desktop app doesn't make a lot of sense  
to me either.

We're in a time of buzz. It'll be many months before we get past the  
hype to see who's serious and who's not, and what technologies have  
value to the task. But if I had to make a guess, PHP and AJAX will  
continue to expand, and Flash will keep on being the creative outlet  
for the forseeable future. Why? Simply because they fill the current  
business needs quite nicely.

-- Cole