Vicker's Coding Kitchen

PURE ACTIONSCRIPT vs FLEX vs LASZLO

Vicker -

Is been a while since my last blog. It is because other assignments hooking me quite a while slowing down my FYP progress. I will chase back this week ^^

Last week Andy have given me some wiki references on AFLAX. Having some research on different kinds of technologies and development methodology, the following is my little comparison on them.

PURE ACTIONSCRIPT

  • ECMAScript-based programming language
  • control Macromedia Flash movies and application

Advantage:

  • flexible and can perform all of the functions in Flash
  • able to have more rigid linkage between the objects inside the movie and the objects’ class
  • only Flash player (free) is enough to use the compiled SWF file

Disadvantage:

  • not easy to learn
  • the tier concept is not clear, where Flash is both the control and presentation tiers

MACROMEDIA FLEX

  • application server which can compiles Flex mark up language (MXML) and Actionscript to binary SWF file
  • built in functions and interfaces, e.g. dragNdrop, charting, animation effects

Advantage:

  • easy to learn because user dont need to learn Actionscript and also the drawings inside Flash
  • clearly defined presentation tier for Flash
  • having standard user interface which increases usability

Disadvantage:

  • it costs much (US15000 per CPU quoted from Wikipedia)
  • not flexible enough, cannot use the full power of Flash

LASZLO

  • presentation server which conpiles LZX to binary SWF files
  • built in functions and interfaces like Macromedia Flex

Advantage:

  • the same as Macromedia Flex with an addition that it is free

Disadvantage:

  • again cannot use the full power of Flash
  • installation of the server is necessary which it is not always possible for those who pay for web hosting

CONCLUSION
In order to make the product more portable, i.e. can allow any user who have a web space can use it. Pure Actionscript is the best choice. Furthermore, some more powerful Flash functions can be used, e.g. the new Bitmap class in Flash 8 which allows the export of every pixel inside the movie.