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Flash MX: From fluff to serious application builder? at Builder.Com - a review of MX from the application viewpoint. [link via Flazoom]

"Traditionally, developers build GUI applications by tying together multiple discrete objects using code. In Flash MX, developers build an application by tying together animation frames in a movie with code" No,no,no - this is what MX get's round, you can put all your code in one place and use event handlers to drive the app, just like in your beloved VB. Sure, you can use frames for different application states, but surely this is just the same as using different forms in VB. 

Again, it's a case of setting Flash up for a fall. Comparing Flash and VB is like comparing apples and aeroplanes - they're solutions to totally different sets of problems.

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Dave commented on the CNET Flash piece (see below) - he wants some inspiration, and believe me its coming. MX is a great leap forward for Flash development and it's going to take some time for the dust to settle and the 'killer apps' to surface - Flash developers have read the same article in one form or another a few hundred times by now, and it's not slowed their enthusiasm.

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Vision of Flash-based Web raises doubts on CNET - a pretty nothing article with the general tone being 'Flash might be bad, or it might not" with the usual factual inaccuracies (Video clips in separate windows a benefit of Flash MX? Has this guy used Quicktime in the last few years?) The same old usability points get mentioned that have been covered a million times before - we've got bookmarking in MX and Google seems to index PDF's pretty well so I don't see the problem with doing the same thing with SWF's.

The Application is the key concept here - HTML has never been a good platform for applications, it's just not got the capabilities that a good UI driven app needs (kludging around with form elements and DHTML is not the way forward) Even Donald Norman agrees! When people compare Flash with HTML they're missing the point.

Dale Doughton of O'Reilly says "What are the unintended consequences of building an entire application in Flash and kind of defeating a lot of the benefits that have developed around the Web?"  - in reply, I'd say building an entire application (not website) in Flash may actually get you something that's useable and on a par with modern desktop applications - what exactly are these wonderful application-specific benefits of the web we're losing? If your actually talking about building entire websites in Flash, that's a whole different conversation.

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