Web Tech Talks

Mac OS vs Linux

2011-08-06T15:54:00.000-07:00

I have been using a Mac for a bit more than a year now. I bought a Macbook Air second generation. This was the most expensive laptop I have ever bought. But I thought: I am fed-up of fixing problems with my Windows OS or Linux; and I have work to do! So the Mac seemed to be a good option.

It worked indeed. It really really worked well. Mac OS is a really nice thing. The hardware is also really nice. You pay the price, but it is totally worth every dime.

After almost a year, I felt something strange...
I felt the need for more...

My system was indeed nice, stable, good looking and everything you would want a computer to be. But I had a need for more...

I though that I needed a faster Mac. I though I had to buy a iMac 27" i7 so I could do stuffs faster... and bring a bowl of fresh tech air on my desk. I hesitated...
I thought maybe, I should buy a tablet! Not the closed iPad but; the Acer Eee Pad transformer! Half tablet, half notebook! That seemed nice indeed!

I thought about all that... and saw a Win7 laptop on sale at $299 at Future Shop.
I bought it thinking this could be a nice backup for my Mac. I mean, when I need to have a computer available, and I don't want to carry around my (almost) $2,000 toy; this laptop could be great. And it makes much more sense than a tablet at $500 able to do less!

So... I bought it... I cleaned Windows... I installed Ubuntu. I had to fight the cheap hardware to make it work properly and I "wasted" some of my precious time tweaking every part of the OS to make it really usable...

After playing around A LOT with my cheap Ubuntu Natty laptop; and after over one year using a Mac, here is my conclusion:
There is a lot of time "wasted" using and configuring and playing around with Linux... But I missed that!

The time is not really wasted! It is GREAT! you just don't stop learning things with Linux...

Mac is indeed super intuitive, and user friendly. But I noticed I had a big lack of hacking around and openness which is part of my job as a developer.

Mac is simple and stable, so it is supposedly unleashing your creativity... but, hacking around pushes you out of the box whether you want it or not. It makes a creative person out or you, naturally.

After spending time working on Linux (BTW that was my OS of choice for 3 years before switching to Mac), you have this need and hunger for tweaks and extreme customization and optimization... This hunger will stick in you; and this is a good thing...

Conclusion, we really need both, I guess !

Node.js is the next big thing!

2011-06-05T05:38:00.001-07:00

OK, this title is a bit provocative, I must admit. But how can I get traffic on this website otherwise?

So what is all the fuss about Node.js? It seems like some people say it is "the next big thing" with a community and popularity exploding in a way never seen before (not even when Rails was popular... OK, I know it still is...).

So... why is that? What makes a "new" technology a success?

About rails...

For Ruby-on-Rails, it came from both sides of the business: the developers and the businessmen (guys with the money). The developers were seduced by a very nice, professional and structured framework; easy to use, quick, elegant and producing impressive results fast.

On the business side, it is all about money. So when the business guys understood they could save a lot of money in development and time to market they just said: "WE WANT RAILS DEVELOPERS". Rails naturally became the preferred choice for startups.

I believe that for Rails the business influenced the adoption of the framework even more than the developer's community. I am saying that because the technology behind the scene is not that seducing for a developer... It is an exotic language (Ruby), the performance are pretty bad, the learning curve is pretty harsh if you want to develop something really different and still take advantage of the advantages of RoR.

About Node...

For Node.js it is kind of the same story; but in "better" I would say... For a developer, Node is VERY EXCITING: It uses 100% well known standards (JavaScript and C/C++). It is low level enough so you can do whatever you want with it. It is CRAZY fast (as based on the respected V8 engine developed by Google). It is easy to get started with. And it could be the developer's grail; enabling a dev from A to Z with one and only language (JavaScript which again, everybody already knows).

Conclusion: I AM SUPER EXCITED about Node! :-)

On the business side, they are getting this could also save a lot of money. It requires very little server's resource comparing to Rails or even Apache+PHP; so you can start with small money on the hosting infrastructure (BTW it should also uses less bandwidth). The developers knowing JavaScript are very numerous and ready to go today; so according to the demand and supply law, you could find cheap developers ;-) (OK it is theory). It is made for real-time communication; and thus ready for the next social and collaboration apps...

One last argument...

The fact that JavaScript will be used on the client side and server side with node is actually a big one... Especially if you consider building apps for all platforms, including mobile which is the current big business hype.

With a solution like Appcelerator Titanium you will also use JavaScript for the desktop version, and the mobile version. This means that you would REALLY have JavaScript everywhere... You can save a lot of time using a part of the same code on all sides. For example you could have some data integrity checks performed on the client side (attached to a form), then on the server with node; but also on the client side in your iPhone and Android apps; all of that with the same code...

You know what I mean now?

That's right! This technology is pretty convincing for both sides of the business... What? is there a third side? ... yes, maybe the designers... It is true that another thing which made Rails a success was the design. The admin interface and design guidelines recommended by 37signals are a delight for designers (it seems, I mean they told me). Now, seriously... That is not the missing part. The only thing missing would be a big success story like 37signals'tools or Twitter (RoR)... or FaceBook (PHP).

This will come soon for sure. And anyways, the developers actually rule the Internet world; so this thing can not go wrong! also, there is nothing to lose as the learning curve is close to 0.

BTW I am kidding about the developers ruling the Internet.... or am I?

Another interesting article about the subject here (Why Everyone Is Talking About Node by Jolie O'Dell) and yet another one here (5 reasons to give node.js some love by Rob Ashton).

Flex/AIR for mobile devices... new thought about Flash builder Burrito

2010-12-13T05:32:00.000-08:00

In a previous post, I was saying that Flash might be the only real solution for cross-platform development (Web, Desktop, Mobile). After testing some more it seems like it is not that easy... For example, I thought the only requirement for AIR and Flash to run on Android was having Android 2.2 or up... It seems like it is not the case.

I updated my LG EVE (GW620) cell to Android 2.2 with OpenEtna. I was very excited because I wanted to test the AIR app I developed with Flash Builder Burrito. I could not find Flash and AIR in the App Market... but I could find "tour de mobile flex", so I installed it.

Launching it, I had the usual message asking me to install Flex; but it could not be found on the market again...

After a few research online, it seems like AIR/Flash mobile are not only limited to Android version but also to the kind of CPU on the device. It seems like it works mostly on HTC phones...

WTF?! So what does it mean ?! Is AIR mobile a real alternative? I guess not... It is actually not too complicate to develop an Android and an iOS version of an app in most case (apps are usually pretty basics).

So I guess AIR mobile could be used is some really particular cases... but really not for a "mass market" app... Why is it that each time I come back to Flash/FLEX I am excited; then quickly disappointed ?!

Chrome OS... I was right ... back to the basics!

2010-12-07T21:24:00.000-08:00

Google is launching their Chrome OS... What is this exactly? Actually it is an OS up side down... I mean they took a browser, decided this will be the main thing and added drivers and functionalities for connecting the real world to the browser... I mean, for example, you plug an USB camera and you can directly upload your pictures from the camera to Picasa Web.

This Chrome OS was something I predicted when Google launched Gears (and before actually). It was clear to me that the browser became the OS "wanna be" (it started with AJAX). In an article I was writing about AJAX libraries, I was explaining that big players wanted to launched their libraries because it was like early versions of libs of the future OS. I imagined that for example the YUI JavaScript Library would be integrated in the browser (the OS of the future) and optimized (and accelerated) by the browser. That is why so much energy and money was spent in JavaScript libraries development.

Gears was also a pretty clear intention from Google to extend the browser's capability and bring an online app closer to a native app.

Anyways, what I mean is that Chrome OS was not a surprise at all. Will it work though? I don't know... If you compare a Windows machine used mainly for accessing the Internet and Chrome OS; Chrome OS wins! ... But if the basis of comparison is some "serious" OS like Linux or Mac OS X (both UNIX based BTW), maybe Chrome OS is not that charming.

I remember about 11 years ago, I was talking with a developer specialized in Solaris (the UNIX OS from SUN)... He was telling me that before Microsoft Windows, people were expecting computer to just work... and if the computer would crash, this was a big deal; just a big unacceptable failure...

But when MS Windows became popular, people just got used to crashes, reboots and reinstalling. It just became part of using a computer.

So, thanks to Microsoft, developers could just do a bad job; release a buggy software and tell their client to reboot the machine if there was a problem...

I guess we are coming back to the basics. The more Microsoft is failing at providing good products (and computers are becoming increasingly / paradoxically more powerful) , companies and people are searching for alternative: something that would just work as expected. Something simple and fast, centred on what the user needs to do... nothing much, nothing less...

Maybe the Internet world is finally getting some common sense... I guess it is good timing, as Internet and computers are now more than gadgets. They are just part of people life...

Toughs on Samsung Galaxy Tab vs iPad ?!

2010-12-05T06:12:00.000-08:00

It's almost Christmas! I guess it's the perfect time for a product launch... Apple promotes their iPad as the perfect gift... and Samsung launched their Galaxy Tab everywhere. You can not miss their tablet whether you go to a Rogers store, at Bell or Telus store.

Smart move from Samsung ? .... or dumb move? :)

Strange move anyways ... I think ...

I love Android... I have a Nexus One, I love the fact that AIR and Flash are available on Android. Also that the dev is done with Java; and the openness. But for now iOS is still king as user experience is concerned. iOS is faster and more stable... Apple's App Store is fantastic, the apps can be really cool. Android is getting there, but it will take some time.

My point is that if iOS is better than Android... Android should be cheaper at least; especially Android is Open Source (and free) so I doubt Samsung put the same budget in R&D than Apple for the development of the device...

As if this was not sufficient, the Galaxy Tab is smaller than the iPad (I don't think it is a good thing for a tablet that expensive).

Conclusion: really... what a strange move from Samsung... I guess the only motivation for potential buyers would be if they hate Apple ?

Strange, strange, ... we will see about the sales...

BTW if you really want to buy an Android table now, consider the Archos 101.

FLEX / Flash Builder and AIR for Android

2010-12-04T17:16:00.001-08:00

I guess you know the AIR virtual machine has been released for Android 2.2 a few weeks (months?) ago. I enrolled the beta program and have done some test with the early release of the FLEX framework with mobile support. Unfortunately at the time, nothing was done for Flash Builder SDK (only Flash was really supported). Now, Flash Builder with mobile support is finally in public beta. see http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashbuilder_burrito/

The beta is pretty promising: there is a real framework and set of widgets for mobile development and it is possible to debug directly on the mobile device...

I developed quickly a client for my timesheet tool (see the Java client here) and can not wait for the production release with support for export to iOS...

If you want to see some example and Tour de Flex mobile, go here : http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flexsdk_hero/samples/

Some general info about the release here http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/whatsnew_flashbuilder_burrito.html

Here a set of 3 cool video tutorial : http://tv.adobe.com/watch/adc-presents/flex-mobile-part-1-beginning-a-mobile-application/

From windows to Linux to Mac OS - MacBook AIR (2)

2010-12-04T15:42:00.000-08:00

I bought a MacBook Air about one month ago. My laptop on Linux and Windows (dual boot) crashed and I wanted some good hardware; and I must say it is not that easy to find when buying a Windows laptop. I have been considering a Mac for a while as it is the only machine capable of running Mac OS, Windows and Linux. As I wanted to try out iOS development, I had no choice than Mac OS.

So, anyways, I compared the price between MacBooks Pro and the new MacBook Air and it was pretty close; but the AIR had an SSD drive. I didn't hesitate, almost the same CPU + RAM but with an SSD.... No comparison, the AIR must be faster.

I can tell you, I am not disappointed. This machine is lightning fast!

I was worried I would miss some of my favourite Open Source apps (Planner, Gimp, ffmpeg, ...) I got used on Linux. But NO, thanks to MacPorts I can easily compile all the apps I need.

Otherwise, Eclipse runs very well as all the other application I usually use on Linux or Windows.

The main problem I had with Apple products was the price. I must say the MacBook Air is well priced... High res LED screen and SSD can be pricy... Overall, yes it was not cheap... Maybe the most expansive laptop I ever bought but I don't regret it as I use it as my main computer.

I also tested iWork, TimeMachine and some other Mac typical applications. Very well done.

I might stick to the Mac OS in the future. More expensive, yes... But less time wasted configuring and optimizing... and might be better for the environment too as this machine is pretty power efficient.

Apple makes good products, no doubt about that. Too bad they suffered from their users in the past. I mean, Macheads tended to be condescending and annoying thinking they were better than everybody else (BTW, Mac OS is just very close to Linux... not much more :) ).

You know what I mean? Same problem than BMW... good products but annoying users :)

My advice anyway... buy one, you will not regret it...

Android tablet form China

2010-08-26T08:14:00.000-07:00

I just received the Android tablet I ordered from China... It is a small 7" touchscreen tablet running Android 2.1.

I ordered the thing and didn't expect anything very special... As this is a strange Chinese product and actually not so expensive: I paid around $220 (CAD) all inclusive (taxes and delivery included).

I didn't have the time to test it in detail, but I will... I might even make a comparison between this thing and the iPad. Of course the winner will be the iPad; but the iPad is absolutely not the same budget; not the same device neither, that's for sure.

Anyways, here are the tech specs and some pictures I took (my my Nexus One ;) ).

CPU	Telechips TCC8902
FSB	800MHz
Memory	DDR 256MB
Built in Nandflash	4GB
Extended	SD Card, U disk
LCD display	7" TFT digital display, 800×480
Internet solution	support WIFI; USB port for 3G module; USB Host
I/O ports	DC In Mic In 3.5mm Audio output SD/MMC 3*USB2.0(one standard, other mini port OTG and HDMI Port version 1.3 1080P
Keyboard	Screen QWERT keyboard or external USB keyboard
Mouse	External USB mouse
Audio	Built in stereo speakers 0.5W×2 Built in mono recorder
LED indicators	Power; Charging
Power ON/OFF	1 key
Battery	1500mAH, 7.4V Lithium-ion battery
Max. battery time	Wifi on: 4 hours Wifi off: 5 hours
Power adapter	220V Input,9V DC Output,2A
Product dimension	278mm×185mm×25mm

iPad WTF with iTunes?!

2010-08-20T06:05:00.000-07:00

I just bought an iPad for my wife's birthday. I thought it would be so nice for her to be able to start it and check her mail quickly and easily, write documents and so on...
She has a PC on Windows Vista and I know it's a pain to get started if you just want to do simple tasks - It takes forever to launch if you just want to check your mail.

I thought Apple products were easy... I thought my wife could just switch the thing on, connect to a WIFI network at Starbucks and get started... And ... WTF?! no no no...

You switch it on and you get stuck on an iTunes logo... Yes! you have to connect it to a computer having iTunes to activate it. You need an account too I believe.

My wife has an iPhone; so I thought she had everything she needed on her PC about the iTunes thing. And again: disappointment! She needed to upgrade iTunes.
I took soooooooo long to (try) to get the update than finally she left the iPad at home and took her PC at Starbucks.

Great... I thought it was a nice present... I thought her life would be easier...

Thanks Steve...
WTF with you these days man?! No flash/AIR on iPad/iPhone ... iTunes mandatory...
Yes you have nice products but this policy will kill the brand!

Switching back to Windows from Linux I was even considering a Mac at a certain point... but really Steve... NO WAY!!! I knew Apple was a kind of religion... but I didn't know it was also a dictatorship (not to this point)!

Next time I will buy jewelry for my wife as usual... What a waste of our time !!!

flashmoto.com flash template and CMS and some tech philosophy

2010-08-19T14:16:00.000-07:00

Woaw!... That is all I have to say about this product...
http://templates.flashmoto.com/
Click on "templates", choose a template then "control panel demo"...

Let me say this again... Woaw!

I am working on a "next generation CMS" using AJAX and Zend Framework. It is not bad but when I see what these guys did, and what I could have done in flash/flex... What's the word...

The only problem with Flash is the market, of course HTML stays king for reaching a maximum of people/devices. Now with AIR and Flash for Android, flash is making its way to mobile devices and TV (Google TV). This technology could also work on Apple products but, of course, Steve does not like that... Maybe it will be authorized one day for iPhone, iPad, iDontKnowWhatElse...

If this is the case, maybe the VM/OS of the future will be the Flash player and not the browser?

VirtualBox running Ubuntu on windows

2010-08-17T06:52:00.000-07:00

Visualization is not new. I have been using VMware for years. At first I was using it for running a version of SuSE Linux on my windows laptop. This was for me the easiest way of having a real LAMP server and access to the tools I am used to. That's right unfortunately we still have no choice when we need the Adobe suite for example. It is either Windows, or Mac...

I could almost get rid of Windows for about 2 years as I had all the tools required on Linux (Eclipse, OpenOffice, ...). Unfortunately, lately I do more and more FLEX development (I mean... FLEX is not the problem... The problem are is Flash Builder). I tried some solution on Linux running the FLEX SDK; it works well... But there is no tool for MXML edition in WYSIWYG mode on Linux. Of course the best one is Flash Builder from Adobe. I also tried to run a copy of Windows in Linux with VirtualBox; which is kind of fine but not the best performance wise.

My point is... I had to move back to Windows... I know it is sad.
Anyway, the best solution I found is this one:

Running Ubuntu on VirtualBox on windows

Why is it the best solution?

VirtualBox is Free! :)
Ubuntu Linux is pretty lightweight, so it is FAST even in a VM (not like windows in a VM)
I can run my LAMP server on the background in the VM and have my Windows tools (Adobe Suite) on full speed in their "native" environment

For even better speed. I keep all my files on the Windows file system and I mount it on the Linux Vbox. This way for example I have all my PHP/HTML/CSS files on windows (no network drive), these are accessible by Apache on linux as a mounted folder.

I did the same thing on my laptop. In addition to that, I installed an SSD drive hosting the OS (Windows 7) and the main software + the Linux Vbox. The result is a comfortable speed and an environment with the best of both worlds.

BTW the SSD is almost a requirement with Windows... GOD this thing is slow to get started. Yes, it is pretty speedy to show up the login screen; but after, you have to wait and wait for all the background soft to load... It is INCREDIBLY slow to start comparing to an Ubuntu Linux.

Nexus One unpacking (vs LG EVE GW620R) + flash + AIR mobile

2010-08-13T07:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I received a nice package by mail: A brand new Nexus One.

So what's the big deal you'll tell me? It's just a phone right ?

Yes that's right but it is more than that. It is the ultimate Android device; the most powerful and up-to-date Android device, a developer's dream...

As you can see on the box, HTC and Google are kinda close :-)

The box is clean, simple and classy. Nice simple clean design and Google logo plus a little reminder of Google's colors. The quality of the package and the phone could remind you what Apple does; simple and confident.

When I started the device and connected it on my WIFI, it directly asked me if I wanted to update the system. YES! you bet! I was thinking of Android 2.2, and yes! that what the update was about. As you can see on the picture, I also have an LG eve (Android 1.5 pouah!) so I could compare both. I will not do a full comparison here right now but I might in another post.

Anyways, after the update I connected the phone to my Google accounts and downloaded a few soft from the market. The first GREAT thing about 2.2 and the market is this:

YES YES YES! Flash and flash showcase. This is the whole reason why I got this phone (actually my client got this phone... It is not mine but I will test it and use it for development purpose... This remark is for my wife; otherwise she will think I spend all the family money on gadgets... ;-) ).

About Flash: this thing is really a killer! It is fast, seems pretty stable, looks good, and seems FULL featured. I also installed the AIR mobile VM and can't wait to port some FLEX apps to the device... That is very exciting!

Otherwise, overall the phone looks great. The system is quick and elegant. The virtual keyboard is responsive and the new voice recognition feature works pretty well (even with my french accent). I would say the only advantage the LG EVE has, is the full keyboard poping out... As you can see on the picture, the virtual keyboard takes a huge space. I tried to connect a bluetooth keyboard on the Nexus One but it didn't work for some reason...

More about these phones later... And the most important thing: more about FLASH AND AIR on this device later. I will post vids too for sure!

BTW, for Apple fans... Yes, the iPhone and the iOS are still better. I mean the user experience is still better on Apple products. But Android is getting there, just wait a little bit more. For the developers, I would say there is no comparison: Go Android!

Still for Apple fan interested in flash on this device, read this http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-20013186-248.html

Ext Designer - Design your JavaScript GUI the WYSIWYG way

2010-07-11T08:39:00.000-07:00

It is not a secret, the best and most professional JavaScript libraries according to me are YUI and EXT JS. BTW, EXT JS started as an add-on of YUI... Until the "Ext Js guys" thought they knew better, I guess... And that could be the case :)

Anyway... EXT JS is fantastic. The widgets are incredibly rich, stable, nice, elegant; if you prefer developing in Java it is still possible with Ext GWT - the bridge between Google's GWT and Ext Js widgets.

Now, if you prefer using Flash Builder and FLEX because you can build your GUI the WYSIWYG way... there was no alternative to Flex and Flash. Until now...

The "Ext Js guys" just released "Ext Designer"; and it seems to be a killer app. I did not have time to really test it deeply yet but it appears pretty wild: You can drag and drop Ext Js widgets in a canvas and change the widgets parameters; the tool will generate the whole JavaScript for you. As this was not enough, the developers used Qt for building Ext Designer; this means this editor is fast, robust and portable (Windows, Mac and Linux versions are available).

This might just be a KILLER APP!!! Check it out:

Video demo : http://vimeo.com/11122346
Official page: http://www.sencha.com/products/designer/

Simple Cloud - Standard Cloud API for PHP

2010-06-23T09:45:00.000-07:00

The SimpleCloud API will be soon part of the Zend Framework. This is a pretty cool news, but what is Simple Cloud? and why is that interesting for me? Check out http://simplecloud.org/ for detail but in a few words, SimpleCloud is a standard interface for accessing Cloud APIs.

This means that you will be able to develop functionalities taking advantage of Cloud Hosting and Cloud File Hosting with the SimpleCloud API then host your PHP application on the Cloud provider of your choice.

So you just focus on development and you won't have to worry if you want to switch from Amazon S3 to Rackspace... Your "cloud features" will work. By cloud features, It is a bit limited for bow but I am sure they will extend the functionalities soon.

One of the most interesting feature is the ability to use a Cloud File system. So you can send and retrieve files to a cloud repository. The size of the storage is virtually unlimited and your only pay for the space you use. Checkout Rackspace Cloud File for more information about that.

Anyway the good news is that people are concern about standardization and portability; and do something about it; that's great :)

Google TV = TV+Android+Chrome!

2010-06-08T06:52:00.000-07:00

Google is working on a new product : "Google TV".

No it is not TV content on the web, but the opposite! Web content on the TV. And also availability for bridges between TV and web.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diTpeYoqAhc

I know what some might think... "OK, so what? This is not new... It has been at least a decade now companies try to sell us boxes to plug on the TV for surfing...". Yes, but the context is completely different now.

We are talking about web 2.0, about video, radio online, rich user interface... The web has changed but we are still stuck on our small computer screens. Having the web on the TV makes much more sense now than ever. In addition to that the lightweight OS and CPU are here. We ported the web on our mobile phones (I am not talking about the WAP... it is good this thing did not work!); I am talking about the iPhone and the Android phones. We can browse on these devices and have apps using the web data... Unfortunately our phones screen are too small for having a nice experience on the web; that is what Apple stretched the iPhone and call the result an iPad then is selling it to us as the ultimate web experience (yes without flash, I know ;) ).

Anyway, the market is finally mature enough to be transfered to the TV and FINALLY reach the REAL mass market.

On a tech point of view, Google TV will run Android. This means that apps developed for Android will be easily portable to the TV. Something else very interesting is that unlike Apple TV, Google TV will be embedded in TVs. Of course you will have the option of buying the separate box. But having it embedded in TVs means that people having no interest in the web before might be interested to activate it on their TV = wider audience.

For the developers, this is also a great news! Imagine if you could reuse the same code for the mobile app and the TV app; and soon for desktop too I am sure. Ubuntu is currently working on a kind of VM which will let us run Android apps natively on Linux; this will come to Windows and Mac soon for sure.

That would be SO fantastic... The dream coming to reality: one development and deployment on all platforms. And as Chrome will run on this platform as a full feature browser, your website will also work properly without any restriction on the future TVs.

Of course AIR now runs on desktop, mobile (Android and iPhone)... But it is not the same technology; and of course Apple blocked this technology; so there is no way we could use FLEX and ActionScript on the iPhone for now (legally I mean, even if technically it seems to be working pretty well).

So anyway... Google TV !!!! YEAH!!!!

Internet Explorer 9

2010-04-09T08:40:00.000-07:00

Microsoft is working on IE9 and it seems they are doing a great job. The big new thing will be using hardware acceleration for displaying graphic and text in the browser. This is great news! This means AJAX animation and applications will be able to use the GPU of your graphic card for rendering! In other words expect AJAX animation to be blazing fast ! Maybe even faster than flash animation.

You can test the browser and demos at:
http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/

I told you the RIA war has just begun...

About the RIA war...

2010-04-09T08:22:00.000-07:00

Yes I have been interested in RIAs for as long as it has existed (let's say it started with the CD-roms before the web came to it).

Anyway I found this great article:
http://www.insideria.com/2009/06/flex-builder-linux-and-open-so.html

It is smart and realistic. That's great reading something objective talking about the real problems or Adobe strategy and the RIA war. It is so true that Adobe does not give enough attention to the developer community... I know they are trying... But it is still not there.

Anyway, read it... it is worth it :-)

FLEX vs PyGTK - Desktop apps

2010-04-01T12:52:00.000-07:00

I have been developing tools for tracking the time I spend working on project for "years". I mean each time I want to test a new technology, I usually start making a client for what I call my "Timeshoot" project.

I have developed a Java client (see http://antidot.ca/timeshoot/ ) connecting to a MySQL and SQLite database directly. Then I developed a PyGTK version connecting a set of JSON webservices (based on the Zend Framework MVC architecture).

Now I am starting a version with an AIR client developed with Flex Builder 4 (which has just been released). I have this kind of love-hate relationship with FLEX/Flash... I started using flash as a webdesigner 12 years ago then stopped when most of my work was programming job. Since then every so often I try to give FLEX/Flash a chance... I try to use this thing for something else than animation and multimedia application.

My conclusion is that FLEX and Flash Builder 4 would be fantastic... If it would output something else than a swf... The problem is the flash player... slow, buggy, with an ugly rendering engine antialiasing everything (not doing a good job at this task...)

So here is a comparison of the AIR app and the PyGTK app.
On the left is the FLEX/AIR app and on the right the PyGTK app. I tried to give them the same look, the funny thing about that is when I showed the AIR app to a friend (who is a big fan of FLEX) he said: "Why did you do such an ugly application with FLEX". I though that was funny because flash fans will expect the app to look good, be animated and so on... I guess the business people get annoyed by that though. That is why I tried to make the FLEX app as close as a "business desktop app" as possible. The ideal situation for me would be that we could not see the difference between a FLEX app and another app with a GUI more integrated to the system.

Any way, If you look closer, you will see the PyGTK app seems cleaner (no anti-aliasing) and the rounded corners are clean. The rounded corner on the FLEX app are very ugly... (BTW the rendering looks better on Mac; on Linux my app could not install properly).

The PyGTK app is noticeably more responsive than the AIR app. It starts faster and run faster.

On a development point of view, the FLEX app is easier to develop for sure. But both GUI where designed with a WYSIWYG editor: Flash Builder for the FLEX app and Glade for the PyGTK app. It is just in the coding where FLEX has an advantage with the whole drag and drop stuff and the service introspection (great new feature from FB4).

Another advantage for the FLEX app, is that it could run within a browser too... But both technologies are cross platform (windows, mac, linux).

So... the verdict?
I still think there is no real advantage in using FLEX/Flash for a desktop application unless it needs to integrate audio and video or complex animation and skinning. Another annoying thing for the AIR app is that you need to install the AIR VM... For PyGTK the all app is compiled in an EXE with the interpreter and all the libs - so it is easier to install for the users - especially if they are "restricted users".

About this AIR VM thing you will tell me "it is the same for Java right ? you need the VM". Yes that is true, but Java is much more accepted in the enterprise and business world than Adobe products. And you can also package your all Java app into an EXE... (It does not seem to be possible with an AIR app).

So once again... unfortunately it is not tomorrow I will use FLEX for developing serious desktop apps... Sorry Adobe, I tried once again...

Apple launches the fat iPhone = iPad

2010-01-28T06:38:00.000-08:00

Once again, Apple snobbed the CES and organized their own press conference a couple of days after; So they can make sure we talk about them and only them. Coz.... Apple is not like any other technology company right ? Apple is by far superior.

So if you feel superior and you do not want to be like anybody else. Buy yourself a BMW and use Apple products only. Don't forget the white Apple sticker for your computer case (if any) and for the back of your BMW.

Anyways, the big news from Apple is the iPad !!! Woaw, fantastic, they took the iPhone, streched it and here we go; now we have to call them geniuses again...
Of course as the iPad IS a BIG iPhone; all of the iPhone apps will work on the iPad (woaw... what a genius... the apps are compatible with ... kinda the same device :-) ).

So what can you do with this big iPhone? Everything you can do with the little iPhone... But you can not use it as a cell phone... I guess because you would look retarded with a cell as big as your head...

So now we takes bets; will this new toy be a success?
I bet YES.

Ok I am kidding about Apple attitude and their superiority complex. I think they are making really great products. I just find Mac users pretty annoying as they have this feeling of being superior and want to explain everybody else why they are superior... I don't think I will convert to Mac soon. I am too happy on Linux and the open world. But an iPad, why not? Or maybe my question would be... why an iPad? Because for now Google didn't release their tablet computer running on Android... but it will come...

So do you know what I am gonna do?
I am gonna just wait the gPad ;-) and have a nice open source Android system on my big iPhone like machine...

Ah... Apple, Apple, Apple... you love attention and showing off your stuff... iPad !!! the FAT iPhone or should I say fat iPod touch (yes I guess it's more what it is because it is not a phone).

Nice :)

VirtualBox OSE on Ubuntu Linux

2009-12-15T18:02:00.000-08:00

It has been about 2 or 3 years now I have been using Linux as my main OS for desktop (of course as a server it is another story... like... 12 years). 4 years ago I moved from Belgium to Canada and left the company I founded there to find my self working again as a real freelance without a team and all the infrastructure to count on. As I did not have a steady place to work at the time, my main computer was a laptop and I was working on it from Starbucks or other places... At the time I needed Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Eclipse and a Linux server. So I was running Linux on VMware under windows and it was OK.

Now, I really do not want to come back to Windows my main OS. You can do so much more with Linux ! So I have always been searching for a solution to be able to use my favorite software.
I do not do any graphic work anymore so It is ok, we have everything on linux... But all of the great (and expensive) Adobe products. I tried Wine, but I could only run Dreamweaver MX, Flash MX and Photoshop 7.

The only solution was to use a virtual OS on top of Linux so I tried VirtualBox OSE today. And it is pretty amazing. Here is a screenshot of my desktop in "seamless" mode.

Is that cool or what? As you can see my windows programs seem completely integrated in the Linux OS. I have my windows start bar at the bottom and my Ubuntu start bar at the top. I can even copy/past data from one OS to the other.

Everything runs like a charm it is really wicked amazing. I guess I'll be good to buy Adobe licences again (I guess that is the only problem of the solution ;) ).

More info about VirtualBox: http://www.virtualbox.org/
How to install it : http://www.howtoforge.com/virtualbox_ubuntu

For those who do not know what the principle of VirtualBox and Vmware, here is the explanation. These softwares emulates computer hardware. This means that you can install any OS on top of this layer of "soft hardware". The same principle is used for the Cloud Hosting. It is really cool because as everything is software, you can change what ever you want just by configuration (let's say you want to add RAM or a CD-rom, you can create that changing the config or your virtual machine). Another advantage is that you can easily duplicate your virtual machine (and OS). So you can copy your entire Windows XP OS and all the softwares to another computer; and everything will work like a charm.

All of this is not so new but with the power of nowadays computer it begins to make sense to use these technologies. It is one of this technology simple in the principle but opening a whole new world of possibility.

And BTW of course VirtualBox is free and OpenSource. And I can tell you it has nothing to envy to commercial solutions...

Adobe AIR 2 and FLEX SDK 4

2009-12-11T06:40:00.000-08:00

I have this love-hate relationship with Flash/ActionScript and the tech linked to it. I start using flash very early at the version 1 just after Macromedia bought FutureSplash animator (and renamed it flash). So i followed closely the evolution until ActionScript 1. Yes I started my career as a designer... Now I am a 100% programmer, it's actually easier ;-) .

Anyway, I stop working with flash before ActionScript 2 arrived. Then I had to do small stuffs here and there with flash and AS. And each time I was using AS and Flash, I would get stuck on crazy bugs or inconsistencies. You are never sure you will be able to do what you want in time with AS because it behaves sometimes in a crazy way (comparing to the other languages I know: PHP, Java, Python, JavaScript, ...).

Same thing for FLEX, I tried the version 3. And I though it was kinda cute, the product they came up with. But got frustrated that this thing does actually less than flash in a way and not much more than an AJAX app... So I though, why should I use FLEX if I can do almost everything it does with Ajax; without using a plugin?!

Now I am back to FLEX and I am building an AIR app. I am actually pretty impressed... This thing is really getting mature... I develop in ActionScript with FDT on Linux (Flex builder is crappy BTW); and I finally feel comfortable and feel like I am using a "real" programming language. Running the app with AIR is fast, stable, ... everything I would expect... It is actually even better than working with Java.

So... I am friend again with Flash / FLEX / ActionScript. And also, good Job Adobe for the FLEX SDK 4 in open source ... That's a great initiative ! I also feel more comfortable using something open !

Google Chrome on Linux

2009-12-11T06:29:00.000-08:00

Yes !!! that's one of the best news of the year! Google released Chrome for Linux as a 100% native app (not something running on wine like Picasa for linux).

See http://www.google.com/chrome?platform=linux&hl=en

I think it is a great news especially at this time; because FireFox is getting more and more bloated. I really thing FF is getting big and slow since the v 3. And as you know, we don't have much choice on Linux for browsers. Yes yes there are plenty of browsers available... but for now it was FireFox or Opera. Opera is really a nice and fast browser but not so great for the dev. Firefox is still the kind as it is open and the excellent Firebug and YSlow run on it.

But NOW...! We have Chrome. Blazing fast, very small footprint, very close to FF and IE for the HTML and CSS interpretation; and of course the JS runs like crazy!!! (I mean fast :) ).

Thanks Google... thanks so much! again ! we love you... yes we do... No, I am not afraid of you taking over the world as long as you continue doing such an amazing job!

Picasa 3.5 - Facial recognition system intagrated!

2009-10-22T05:18:00.000-07:00

I love Google... They just released Picasa 3.5 and they have added a damn wicked features!

The most impressive new feature is the "people" tool. In a few words this tool will find people's faces in your pictures and organize them in an album. You can then put names on faces - it will even link the names to your Google contact list.

Once you name a few faces, the tool will automatically recognize people! It's really impressive. I tested it and really... I'm impressed. The thing even recognized me on a picture where I wear a wig and sun glasses...

Using this tool you can imagine the power of this technology. For example, imagine this on Facebook... Imagine it now linked between the CIA or other government agency and FaceBook. We could automatically find a criminal who moved to Brazil, change his name and posted some picts on facebook for his friends... Or link people together in real interesting ways...

Download it at http://picasa.google.ca/

Check the video demo here:

Mac OS look-a-like on linux

2009-09-01T12:06:00.000-07:00

I just installed a Mac Leopard like theme on my Ubuntu linux and I think it's kinda fun... The one I used is can be found here.

You will find a great introduction about theme installation here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhnLk3gviWY , by the way, this girl is cool; she had plenty of screencast about linux tips and tricks... Nice :)

The theme I used for Firefox is this one https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/12782

And here is a screenshot of my desktop :)

How to crop and resize an image client (browser) side?

2009-08-08T06:59:00.001-07:00

One of the main problem when developing a web application with a content management part is the image manipulation. Each time you give your client access to an interface where he can upload images there is a big chance he will not be happy and have plenty of questions for you. Like:

Why does it take so long to upload a picture a took with my camera?
Why is the picture so big on the screen?
Why is that when I resize the picture in the WYSIWYG editor it is still super heavy and looks so bad?
Why is that I can't crop and rotate my pictures...

So... They usually expect to be able to do the same things as they would do with a desktop app. They don't understand the technology behind and the limitations.

The problem is that for now we could not have access to an API client side for image manipulation...

But now we can :) YES! Google Gears has the 'canvas' API and it's pretty impressive.

Check out this example made with it: http://www.ernestdelgado.com/public-tests/canvasphoto/demo/canvas.html

So what can you do with the Canvas API?
You can crop, resize, encode and decode; meaning that you can change an image client side and send it back to the server. So you could let the user crop the image and send the result in a web friendly size in PNG or JPEG to the server...

Thanks again Google! We love you :)

You know what? It could be Python?!

2009-08-08T05:58:00.000-07:00

Yes... You know I am still searching for the ideal language... The one I could use for almost everything I do: web, desktop apps, mobile, ... And you know what? It could be Python...

I ignored this language for quite a long time because I didn't like the non-ECMA syntax (and the strange indentation thing was a turn off for me). But I tried it the past few weeks and build an application with PyGTK... And I am very happy with it. It's fast, easy, complete, open, cross platform, ...

I understand now why it got so popular. And I must say it's nice coming from Java and C++ for GUI apps development to see it's possible to do the same thing faster and with less problem.

I guess the next step for me is to continue working with it and maybe give you some practical tips here later.

Five Reasons Google Chrome OS Will Fail

2009-07-29T09:10:00.000-07:00

my reply to the article : Five Reasons Google Chrome OS Will Fail

what''s up with you at PC world... do you have something against Google? It started with ""Google: The World''s Most Successful Failure?"" and now this... It''s actually kind of funny. Especially that you don''t really seem to understand Google strategy behind the scene. The problem of the ''cloud'' is the clients (I mean the browsers). Google launching Gears; then their browser, then an OS is to me clearly an intention from them to extend the clients capability. Yes Google Apps is not as good as a desktop app... That''s due to HTML and JavaScript limitation. The future of the web also stands in the improvement of the clients apps. Maybe in the future you will have the ""full featured Internet apps"" with Google OS and a degraded version with other OS... In this case, I am ready to switch to Chrome.

Google: The World's Most Successful Failure?

2009-07-29T09:01:00.000-07:00

I decided to post some stuff I wrote as a reply to PC World's article.

Here is the first one in reponse to Google: The World's Most Successful Failure?

I also had to react about this pointless article. Google has incredible people as employees; and these brain have freedom to be creative and experiment as Google indeed make lots of money. As a result, Google developed most of the more useful apps on the web. Google is part of the success of the Internet... Where would be the web without them? The idea behind all the R&D they are doing is simple... The more people will use the web and their products, the more money they will make with ads. Having so much income that they can just develop what they want without having to be worried about profit; is that really a failure? ""The World''s Most Successful Failure?"" This is a good title for Facebook ... but not for Google...

Eclipse Icon - 128px

2009-06-08T05:23:00.001-07:00

Yes, I love Eclipse. It's really the best IDE for PHP, JavaScript, and plenty of other languages. The great thing is that you have everything in one IDE. So this is great for the web... Often you have to develop in PHP, JavaScript and Flex for the same app. It would be a pain if you had 3 different IDEs... so the solution is Eclipse.

Anyway, I just wanted to share an Icon for Eclipse I have made. I could not find a nice big Icon to put on my desktop so I created one...

Right click and download it if you want to use it.

Qt 4 Dance... Now you are conviced right?!

2009-05-15T09:20:00.000-07:00

I had a chat with one of the developers of our team and he was not convinced about Qt4 and Qt creator... So I'll have to use the killer argument...

Here it is:

Now you are convinced right?!

Qt4: C++ GUI development easy

2009-05-12T07:19:00.000-07:00

Well, I don't have a lot of experience with C++... Actually as I am a self taught everything I don't have the classic developer's training. I begun as a web designer and here I am now a web application developer. And maybe soon a desktop application developer...

For the desktop environment I tried PHP and Winbinder, Java and Swing (see my timeshoot project) and now I am beginning my first desktop application with Qt4 and C++.

The funny thing is that if you know some PHP OOP and Java, Qt4 and C++ won't be get along with :). I always had this image of the C and C++ programmer as a super geeky genius writing mystical obscure lines of code. I had this idea that C++ would not be for me, too complicated and most of all taking too much time learning and developing with it...

Fortunately it seems like I was wrong :)

Qt Creator: a complete IDE with WYSIWYG for GUI design
One of the great surprise I had was to find an easy to install and use tool from Qt to start coding quickly: Qt Creator.

This tool is nice, lightweight, easy and have a tool letting you design your GUI with Qt in WYSIWYG mode.

Qt4, nice and useful things are included
Another nice surprise I had about Qt4 is that some libraries to use XML and databases are included. It is not difficult at all to develop an application with a connection to a MySQL database... That is all I need for the moment... I guess we will see soon a new version of my Timeshoot tool in C++.

What about the documentation?
Qt documentation is nice... and integrated in their IDE. Really you will find everything you need in just one package... And you will be ready in no time developing C++ GUI application compatible Linux, Windows and MacOS X.

I also bought a book on the subject. I guess I'm all set now.

See the book at Amazon Canada:
C++ GUI Programming with Qt 4 by Jasmin Blanchette and Mark Summerfield

Conclusion
Don't be afraid of C++ like I was ;)
Ok I guess I sound stupid for developers with the classic training... But think about the others, and maybe the majority? That would be an interesting thing to know... What is the percentage of developer with a University degree in the field or equivalent training...

BTW did I tell you that Qt4 is free as long as your project is LGPL? And yes you will have to buy a license if you sell your dev; makes sense to me, you make money with their stuff, give them back a part of the profit... It should actually be a general rule even for the open source products, please donate to the developers if you make money with their stuffs.

MySQL replication: Advanced techniques

2009-05-10T05:47:00.000-07:00

I have been working with MySQL for around 8 years now and I really love it. Of course there are the basics... It's FAST (at least for reading). But you can use some interesting advanced techniques which could save your life in some cases.

For example, I remember a time where we where limited by the maximum size of the MyISAM table to 4Go... and of course we reached this limit at a certain point in production. We could save the day copying the table, create a copy of the structure and merging both tables (with the merge engine storage). The result was working with one table with a limit of 8Go... We did the same thing later with more tables.

Anyway, I will maybe explain this techniques and more in another article. It could help somebody...

For now I just wanted to share a REALLY GOOD article about MySQL replication. It is actually the BEST I have read.
Here is : Advanced MySQL Replication Techniques by Giuseppe Maxia.

You will learn about using replication in a way that could (in most case) replace MySQL clustering.

Zend Framework performance test with APC

2009-05-08T08:54:00.000-07:00

As I told you before, I am using ZF for some important projects I am working on. I am also develop ping a Framework on TOP of the Zend Framework. The thing I am developing is actually a framework for a CMS. The idea is to have a unique core and several instances of the core which would be the websites using the CMS.

Anyway as this framework could be the one used by all our future customers, I am concerned about the performances. I am searching a "quick fix" to speed up ZF.

So I have made some tests with ZF and APC. You will find more information about PHP accelerators here

The technique used

I tested an application I developed using ZF (MVC modules, Zend_Form, Zend_Acl, Zend_Db_Table, ... lots of their modules actually) with or without APC.

And also I had the idea to load the ZF files in a memory drive to speed up the access to the MANY files composing ZF.

On linux I mounted a memory drive like that:

# mount -osize=300m tmpfs /www/zendframework -t tmpfs;

Then I copied all the ZF files in /www/zendframework

For your info, if this didn't speed up the ZF a lot, I think it could if you use the Zend Autoloader (but don't use this thing! there is no reason to slow down you app).

For the time tracking, I used a simple PHP function in the bootstrap file.

Results at a glance

Here they are:

With APC, the application runs around 2 times faster but actually in theory it could run even faster in a production environment with multiple users using it.
At best some scripts could run 3 times faster with APC than without.
The memory drive doesn't seem to have much influence, but it does... a bit. So this could be to take into consideration in a production environment.
Using APC and caching a form produced with Zend_Form we had an improvement of 1090.86% (10 times faster!)

I won't enter in the detail of the application here but I could if you ask me to...

Here are the result in a table:

And here the graph in a more "readable" format:

And if you want to know what the application looks like here is a screenshot:

It is composed of a set of forms used to enter customers data. The application is multi lingual (here it is in Chinese - no sorry I don't speak Chinese btw :) ).

Please let me know if you want detailed information about the tests and the application and also how could I have a form run 10 times faster with cache and APC comparing to the Zend_Form one :)

ZendFramework - is it worth it? status after the 1.8 release

2009-05-08T08:01:00.000-07:00

I guess it is not a secret, the Zend Framework brings a great level of professionalism and convention to PHP development but sometimes forces our application to be slow and bloated...

I have been using ZF since version 1.5 and just upgraded to the 1.8. I developed and maintained 3 pretty complex projects with it and used a lot of the ZF modules and could notice some important things...

This framework is new so us, as users sometimes suffer from it.

Backward compatibility: not so good...

For example, 2 or 3 times while upgrading the ZF version I had to re-test everything and change some code for my application to work... I had problems with Zend_Loader, Zend_Amf and Zend_Translate... I won't enter into the details here but you have to know that you could waste some time when upgrading.

Performance: not good... but no big surprise

Performance wise, it's really not so great... If you compare a simple PHP application with a set of form developed with ZF, MVC and Zend_Form without cache and the same thing with simple HTML and some PHP behind you could see a huge performance gap... The simple application could be up to 10 times faster (no kidding, I'll posted some tests I have made)!

One the the thing that annoys me with a lot of new framework is that they implement plenty of design patterns, are inspired of Java and "so called best practice" but some times they don't consider the context they are in... PHP is not Java! JavaScript is not Java neither (I am saying that for Dojo and their "require() s"...)

So anyway, about the performance, I know the community will find solutions but right now the framework is too volatile in a way.

Anyway, I guess it is not bad if you compare to Ruby-on-Rails? It would be interesting to compare...

So... why should I use it?

I have several arguments for you.

Great for a team and big projects

Using a Framework is great when you work on big projects and with a team. Lots of conventions are defined in the ZF documentation. So things can be clearer for a team and if there is an ambiguity, refers to the ZF conventions :)

Great because you will have less documentation to write

A whole part of your project will already have a technical documentation : the ZF one :)

Great because lots of modules are already developed for you

Yes... don't reinvent the wheel, that would be stupid.

Great if you need to hire developers

That's right... If you use ZF and you need more people to help you. You know that if somebody in ZF certified (or competent) he could be productive very quickly.

And also great for all the obvious reasons describe on the ZF website.

It could be PHP + JAVA with a binding between both languages?

2009-03-23T13:26:00.000-07:00

Still searching for the ideal programing language, I though about something... Maybe the ideal language would result from a binding between several languages?

Actually, the only thing I am asking for is being able to write the code once and reuse it what ever the environment is: web, desktop, ...

So I investigated the PHP/Java binding solutions. This seems to be pretty cool. The idea is to wrap the Java classes with PHP. As a result we can use the methods of a Java class within a PHP script, see an example here.

I will test this with my "timeshoot" dev (see http://www.antidot.ca/timeshoot/) . This is a Java desktop application I developed. The tool is used to log the time we spend working on projects. I actually need to develop a web interface too. So I will use the Java classes in my PHP dev... I'll tell you my though about it...

Anyways, now we see a binding between PHP and Java is possible... and a binding between Java and Javascript is possible too (see Jaxer and Rhino projects); I guess we will soon see a binding between PHP and JavaScript trough Rhino for example.
This could be cool... We could use the same JavaScript code to check the user input on the client and server side (server side using JavaScript objects warped in a PHP object).

If you know such a project is in development, please tell me... I am interested...

The Ideal programming language - PHP, JavaScript, Java, ActionScript?

2009-03-11T05:17:00.000-07:00

What would be the ideal programming language?
I think the dream would be having to develop once only for any environment you wish to deploy you app to. Also those environment should be as diverse as the a web server, a browser, a desktop app, a mobile device... So you'll tell me "I know! you are talking about Java!". Yes it's true, Java can do that. It's such a nice and elegant programming language, you can do what ever you want with it and deploy to all those environments. But Java is not that easy nor flexible. I love it but... In most case it won't be the best return on investment for my clients.

Anyways, the needs to deploy on different environment is real and for now, the biggest competitor I see for Java if you consider the web, desktop apps and mobile device would be ActionScript (FLEX and Flash).

FLEX vs. Java
FLEX: Not bad for web, desktop and mobile
I can here the Java specialists from here "what? what are you talking about, there is nothing to compare!!!". But YES there is a lot to compare. It is pretty clear to me that Adobe strategy is inspired of what Java can do. And not only that but even the ActionScript 3 syntax... It IS Java :)

Also, look at their model Flash apps and Java apps are compiled code running on a virtual machine (the flash player for flash, the JVM - or JRE for Java). Anyway, ActionScript weakness is the server side for now but I am sure Adobe will do something about that pretty soon... Wanna bet?

FLEX is a great framework for developing web RIA GUIs and also small desktop applications with AIR. Also FLEX applications are easier to deploy on the web than AJAX apps. It's also usually faster and "richer". The only "problem" is the plugin... It is still an obstacle for some people or organizations. Also even if Adobe developed their plugin for may environments, it does not run equally well on these envs (the linux plugin is pretty weak).

Java vs. JavaScript
JS+Jaxer+AIR: Not bad for web, desktop and server
This is a quite refreshing solution. JavaScript is getting more and more popular since the Ajax word was first heard. Now you can find JavaScript in a lot of different environments. Even in part of some OS and in part of desktop apps (Mozilla apps for example).

And now... server side with Jaxer! This is quite a revolution. It is so nice being able to develop only one code to check user input client side and server side. And it is so nice to access the flexibility of JavaScript server side.

And with AIR, you can create desktop applications with JavaScript. You can even develop offline browser apps with Google Gears.

I actually tested Jaxer yesterday and it's really nice. It's such a nice feeling knowing your code will be reusable and compatible on the client and on the server.

JavaScript is certainly a HOT language right now... It's nice, flexible widely spread, easy to learn, OOP, ...

PHP now...
PHP is a great language. It's actually the main language I use. It's flexible, fast, open, extremenlu rich in features, ... The only problem is that it is limited to the server side. Yes? ... actually no. You can develop desktop application with PHP.

I developped a small app with PHP and Winbinder a while ago and it's a nice solution. It's easy to develop, compilable and fast. I have made a version of my application later in Java and the it was slower and much heavier to distribute (as you need the JRE or some kind of compiled distribualble version).

PHP-GTK is also available...

So there are solution to get PHP out of its server box but it is still really experimental. Also, PHP is maybe not the most elegant language to work with when developing desktop GUIs.

Conclusion
I would say that the web application developer job evolved a lot and will still change... for the better. As webdevelopers, we were used to juggle with several languages and techniques to get our web app working... Not it's time for some rationalisation... finaly...

The ideal programming language is not there yet (but Java is we had a JRE as small and fast as the flash plugin) but it is definitely on his way.

JavaScript libraries talks

2009-02-12T06:07:00.000-08:00

At Antidot (the company I founded) we often have talks about the JavaScript library we should use... We develop mainly with PHP and our new projects are based on the Zend Framework.

I was using the YUI but also tested GWT, EXT-GWT, DOJO, jQuery, ... My personal preference is using the YUI for small to medium projects and EXT-GWT for large JavaScript apps. I guess I'll explain my choice in detail later.

But in the mean time, here is a short funny talk I had with Sebastien Le Grand about DOJO vs jQuery or something lighter (in french):

(08:39:35 AM) Arnaud: sinon pour ce qui est du JS framework ... franchement je m en calle du moment que le resultat est la ...
(08:40:02 AM) Arnaud: bref si kenny veut faire du dojo il peut ...
(08:40:21 AM) Arnaud: ce k il ferait avec Dojo ne ressemblera pas a la makette ... et sera trop lourd pour les besoins...
(08:40:33 AM) Sebastien: okay
(08:40:50 AM) Arnaud: si maintenant il veut prouver le contraire et ke le resultat est la ... tant mieux :)
(08:41:00 AM) Arnaud: c est le resultat ki compte ... :D
(08:42:20 AM) Arnaud: mais t imagine les debats avec pac et le graphiste dans ce cas :D
(08:43:00 AM) Sebastien: yep ... mais c vrai que dans le fond ces histoire de javascript ...
(08:43:04 AM) Sebastien: c tout a fait secondaire
(08:43:08 AM) Arnaud: clair
(08:43:15 AM) Sebastien: le débat est plutot PHP5 et zend framework
(08:43:17 AM) Arnaud: surtout k au final .... ca reste du javascript deriere
(08:43:24 AM) Arnaud: we c est sur
(08:43:39 AM) Arnaud: l important c est la couche solide et reutilisable en dessous
(08:43:59 AM) Arnaud: javascript ca reste du gadget dans un sens
(08:44:26 AM) Arnaud: bon ... un gadget bien agreable pour le user si c est bien employe ... mais gadget kand meme
(08:44:56 AM) Arnaud: le truc est k a mon avis les adeptes de Dojo y tiennent ... car c est une telle usine a gaz... k ils ont du " s investir " pour l apprendre
(08:45:08 AM) Arnaud: Dojo est vraiment large ...
(08:45:13 AM) Arnaud: et c est ca ke j aime pas trop...
(08:45:29 AM) Arnaud: Un machin si large pour du gadget ... je trouves ke c est pas un bon calcul :)
(08:46:07 AM) Arnaud: JQuery = leger et gadget ... ca convient bien a JS
YUI est aussi leger bien ke pro mais facile ... donc bien pour JS aussi
(08:46:30 AM) Arnaud: DOJO c est comparable a GWT (l outil de Google ki transforme le Java en Javascript)
(08:46:47 AM) Arnaud: bref beaucoup trop lourd dans 95% des cas ou on a besoin de JS
(08:47:33 AM) Arnaud: ... et pas assez serieux kand t a besoin de faire une VRAI grosse appli JS (dans ce cas autant utiliser GWT)
(08:48:20 AM) Arnaud: c est bien ce que je viens de dire ... vais taper ca sur un blog tiens ;)