Re: Adobe's RIA Technologies

[Nathan Andelin <nandelin@xxxxxxxxx>]

> From: Mike Eovino
> I believe there is some amount of code sharing in Flex; I do not
>  know if it is by copy or reference.

Thanks for the feedback, Mike.  That was the question that drove me to Adobe's site, late last night.  It appeared to me that Flex supports modular development, and you can import code from various modules by reference in your source code, but by copy in the package build process.  I think the generated .SWF file is a complete, self-contained package, comparable to a .EXE file, except that it runs in Flash player.

If that's the case, then the dilemma from a Web deployment perspective is how big you let your .SWF file get.  I ran into one developer asking how he could reduce the size of his 40 meg .SWF file.  It took too much bandwidth.  You'd probably be better off deploying it as a permanent desktop package.

I'm OK with running some code in the browser, and offering interactive user interfaces rather than just following the traditional browser document model, buy holy moly, 40 meg would be a different story.

Nathan.