http://www.robsondesign.com/blog RIAs, Adobe Flex, and related topics Tue, 06 May 2008 15:47:37 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en In his latest Alertbox column, Jakob Nielsen discusses a research study that could prove to be invaluable to our understanding of how users behave on the Web. The great thing about this study is that it tracked the participants' behavior as they followed their own usual routines, so it gives ... http://www.robsondesign.com/blog/index.php/2008/05/06/back-button-behind-closed-doors/ First off, I need to thank Ricky Bacon for bringing this to the attention of the Flashcoders list. Click on the image below to see the full-size screen shot, and you'll see what happens at this particular AOL page when you visit it using the Debug version of the Flash ... http://www.robsondesign.com/blog/index.php/2008/05/05/developer-humor-in-as3/ In the grand scheme of things, this may not seem like a big question. However, as a developer who likes to reference the API documentation frequently, it seems significant. The question is this: Why does the Flex 3 Help feature bury the API documentation when the Flex 2 Help feature ... http://www.robsondesign.com/blog/index.php/2008/04/29/musings-flex-3-vs-flex-2-help/ One of the great advantages that Flash (and by extension Flex) has over Ajax is that you don't have to worry about browser idiosyncrasies or versions: If your application heavily depends on JavaScript and/or CSS, you could find major issues whenever a new browser version comes out. By contrast, Flash ... http://www.robsondesign.com/blog/index.php/2008/04/14/time-to-switch-to-ajax/ I have written favorably about both Cairngorm and PureMVC, and this has led a number of people to ask which framework I prefer. Rather than make a blanket statement that one framework is better than the other, it seems more profitable to take a few moments to discuss some of ... http://www.robsondesign.com/blog/index.php/2008/04/10/puremvc-vs-cairngorm/ Cliff Hall has released a new version of PureMVC with various improvements which you can read about here. In conjunction with this release, Cliff has also unveiled the Manifold Project, which provides numerous demos and ports of PureMVC to languages other than ActionScript 3. I am proud to say that ... http://www.robsondesign.com/blog/index.php/2008/03/10/puremvc-201-manifold-and-index-cards/ There's a room in my house that has a pair of old-fashioned wingback chairs set in front of a large Scandinavian bookshelf unit. I like the way this arrangement looks; the graceful curves of the Queen Anne style chairs contrast nicely with the hard, sleek lines of the bookcase. And ... http://www.robsondesign.com/blog/index.php/2008/02/18/refurbishing-antiques-with-localconnection/ I just treated my website to a long-overdue face lift - it's been at least three years since the last time I gave it any serious attention. This is the first time that it meets W3C standards for markup and style, because it never seemed to be worth the ... http://www.robsondesign.com/blog/index.php/2008/02/01/site-update-at-long-last/ If you haven't been to the FlexManiacs conference website, you should check it out. The conference is much bigger than last year, plus they've added ColdFusion and AIR sessions. I'm particularly glad that Harris Reynolds will be speaking this year, and he has some pretty sweet topics: "Design Patterns and Architecture ... http://www.robsondesign.com/blog/index.php/2008/01/30/looking-ahead-to-flexmaniacs-08/ I've completed the first iteration of a Flex-on-Rails application, and had a lot of fun doing so. The application is called Index Cards, and it's designed to be a generic study aid. The metaphor is simple: on one side of the index card, you write the name of a concept ... http://www.robsondesign.com/blog/index.php/2008/01/28/flex-on-rails-iteration-one/