Ask YC: Flex Vs JavaScript UI tools

4 points·morbidkk··3 comments

There are several alternatives in JavaScript e.g.YUI/Dojo/JQuery UI/Tibco GI. Still none of them matches look and feel of Flex. Also ActionScript is very much similar to JavaScript; so there is not steep climb to do if someone plans to use Flex for UI.

What are the disadvantages of using Flex on UI side vis a vis compared to JavaScript/HTML UI.

p.s. This is for application developement and SEO is not at all my priority

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When I was using flex I would run across strange bugs (such as invisible artifacts on the scrolling data grid which would make it so you couldn't trigger click/hover etc. events in random areas) which you are just "stuck with" as you can't exactly delve into the source and fix it yourself! I hate waiting for vendor updates! With extjs/yui etc. when I have come up against an oddity I have been able to get into the guts and figure it out (and usually figure out what I was doing wrong). Another factor would be accessibility. I know Extjs has this on their roadmap, what about flash/flex?

I add lots of java server-side reference code within and inbtween my static html/javascript. so unless the client code is not too dependent on any back-end code, or aleast not more then say passing a few paramerter or xml request/response, then I wouldn't go with any other ui. the main test for me is, is this, say flash client going to end up being a fat client? if it is then it's not the right choice

I came across two things:

1)Depending on the size of your swf, initial loading might take some time.

2)Not everybody has the latest player on their browsers. If your users are not tech literate. This might be an obstacle.

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