InfoQ recently conducted a virtual panel via email on the current and future state of RIA and Ajax technologies. The panel features a number of valued contributors to the community:
- Dion Almaer - Director, Developer Tools at Mozilla Corporation
Jnan Dash - Chief Strategy Officer at Curl Inc.
Didier Girard - CTO of SFEIR, Author OnGWT.com
Peter Pilgrim - Java Web Users Group Founder
Tim Sneath - Director - Client Platform Evangelism at Microsoft Corp.
Ryan Stewart - Rich Internet Application Evangelist at Adobe
Each participant was asked the following questions:
- 1. The web has been large dominated by "pages" and not "applications" despite the advent of RIA technologies. In the last year we have seen the shift accelerate however with websites featuring "mini-applications" for video, interactive exploration, etc. Given this change has RIA finally "made it".
2. As RIA technologies have been introduced, portability has been stressed. However, user demands are driving native integration with file systems, docks/taskbars, calendaring, and other os level items. Do you think RIA platform will focus more on such integration in the next few years or continue to work towards interoperability instead?
3. Video is the largest application type driving RIA adoption at the moment. What other types of applications to you see driving RIA technology adoption in the next 12-18 months.
4. Given your target framework/language what is its greatest strength versus the rest of the field at the moment (Ajax, GWT, Curl, Flex, Silverlight, JavaFx, etc)?
5. Given your target framework/language what is its greatest weakness versus the rest of the field at the moment?
6. Most RIA languages are not used for both client and server development. Typically backend work is done in PHP, Java, .NET, etc. How do you see this polygot programming model effecting RIA?