Joe Stegman - What can't you do with WinForms?

If flash application are not 'sophisticated' application, so why Avalon capabilities reminds me of Flash ?

http://longhorn.msdn.microsoft.com/lhsdk/port_tech_animation.aspx

I remember seeing some Avalon Demos with very cool animation (like thinks that Flash can do today) if this type of animation is not for LOB/Enterprise apps, why to invest in it.... or is it simply an issue of 'we don't have it (yet) so it's  not something you really need'

.Asher.

 

Hi

I dont know if you've ever programmed in flash, but the reason flash isnt good enough for the apps he mentions is down to the Scripting language, not what you actually see.

From my experience flash is a horrible tool to code in, good for animations, but awful for complex logic.

Andy

AndyStewart wrote:

Hi

I dont know if you've ever programmed in flash, but the reason flash isnt good enough for the apps he mentions is down to the Scripting language, not what you actually see.

From my experience flash is a horrible tool to code in, good for animations, but awful for complex logic.

Andy

you are right, flash is not the right tool, but there is something called flex, on top of flash. I don't know much about it, but from what I understood it is flash for programmers, rather than designers.

yeah your right flex looks really good, shame Macromedia want to charde 12k for it.

Never worked with Flash, probably never will...
But I think you missed the point, which is do professonal/LOB/Enterpirse application need animation?
Joe S. claims that this is not the case (i.e. there is no need for animation and advanced UI in professional apps) - If this is the case why is Microsoft doing Avalon (at least the advanced animation and 3rd graphics support in it)?

My guess is when Avalon is available, Microsoft will say that advanced graphics (animations, 3rd) are very important/essential in professional LOB/Enterprise applications. Also, I dear to predict that the version of Office following the release of Avalon will use more animation and 3D graphics.

You can look here in order to see how basic animation can be helpful in professional applications (Outlook)

.Asher.

I've been developing smart client games using winforms and DirectDraw. In fact, animations can be generated dynamically from code using GDI+, attached to a DirectDraw Surface, and rendered to the client rectangle of a form at high speeds. I'm getting framerates of 60fps on a test machine(1ghz, 256mb ram). Simply stunning.

Anyone who can't see that this is going to revolutionize the UI and user experience for even mundane client apps is high. I mean it blows even the latest 3d version of shockwave out of the tank in terms of visual appeal and user responsiveness. And makes java look like it has a bad case of the hiccups.

As for Direct3D, especially vertex and pixel operations, rendering to the form suffers a performance hit. A big one. For this reason, I would like to see the Managed DirectDraw Api remain even though the current docs state it as being deprecated. 

I understand the move to Avalon will perhaps obviate the need for this, but any thoughts on the future of DirectDraw, which for the immediate future is, in my opinion, the way to go for winforms animations?

ok,
aq 

I once had to do some prototyping in Flash for the University course Human Computer Interaction (aka "Interfaces"), and even that was really really bad. Over the course of that project I have really come to loathe Flash MX and its scripting language. I guess I've been spoiled with Visual Studio et al.

I think there's only one scripting language in the world that I hate more than the Flash scripting language... and that's InstallShield's InstallScript.