Saw this on Slashdot, gotta hand it to Sun for completely destroying everything they touch. I think any executive decision to close source anything is asking for a major backlash from the community. Especially with something as huge as MySQL. No bother, I’m a big fan of Python and PostreSQL.
So I came across this interesting little write up on using the command pattern in WPF, in the article is also a link to a separate article on understanding events. If you’re not using these techniques in your Silverlight or Flash apps, you’re really missing out and you should try to learn how to use them. Especially in the internet app world these patterns are very important for decoupling your sender and receiver. Its good practice not to tie a button click for example directly to whatever is receiving it. I’m glad to see this being used more in the Silverlight/WPF community
Wow is all I can say, this is just an incredible piece of software. You can check it out at http://www.photoshop.com/express/ I would love to see an api for this so you can access your images. Anyway AWESOME JOB ADOBE!!
Wow is this some surprising news. Flash CS4 may be moving from a binary source (aka FLA) to a more open source format called XFL. It sounds much like a jar file (zip) where everything is packaged into one file with a manifest or xml file that describes the content contained in the file like sounds, images, etc. There are many, many welcome advantages to this approach. One approach is that anyone could be able to create an swf through command line just like Flex. Another advantage would possibly be in the editing of an image in Photoshop and not disturbing the time line or other embedded assets. The community would be able to build better tools instead of relying on jsfl scripts. I’m thinking serious Ant tasks here. Anyway I am really liking this idea. Awesome job Adobe!!
So Mix 08 is this week and the rumor mill is flying around an off line version of Silverlight much like Adobe AIR. Technically, Silverlight 2.0 is closer to the desktop version of WPF so the possibility is there. Ryan Stewart in this article talks about the possibility of SQLite being in an off line version which is a bit silly. Maybe Access Lite? :) I don’t know, but I don’t think SQLite is going to even be considered. Personally I don’t think Microsoft has put any weight behind an offline version yet. I think they’re so busy trying to catch up to Flash/Flex and the toolsets that they’re just not ready for an off line version yet. Probably next year, but not this one.
So Microsoft had the Silverlight Camp back in November and had released some great videos on getting started with Silverlight. See them here.
Ryan Stewart has an article on RIA predictions for 2008. Most are pretty good, I mean, this is coming from an Adobe insider and all. I’m not to sure about the whole Apple RIA deal. Apple needs a major overhaul of their software platform in general. The .NET platform really blows Apple clean out of the water and its starting to show in Microsoft’s overall growth. If Apple doesn’t pull up soon, the XBOX 360/Zune space is going to shut the door on the AppleTV/iPod, and you bet that Microsoft is on their butts big time. And one thing is exceptionally true, Adobe is underestimating Microsoft. I personally know Microsoft is revamping their Expression suite big time, they were pretty upset about the first version and are taking the gung ho, take no prisoners approach to the next release. Not saying that the first version isn’t impressive, but its unusable compared to Adobe’s tools. One thing is absolutely for sure, we’re gonna hear and see some major movement in the RIA space from Adobe and Microsoft, because after all its the future of the web.
The Adobe Thermo team came out to talk to us this morning. I’d just like to extend our thanks to them and Adobe for coming out and taking the time to understand our project development cycle. Its really great to share ideas with the product teams at companies like Adobe. We’re glad to see you’re listening! Keep up the great work, we can’t wait to use Thermo!!
Here is a cool example of manipulating 3d objects using small barcodes. But what’s really cool is that you could probably do this with Papervision and Flash as well.