Thursday, February 01, 2007 10:37 AM Erwyn van der Meer

Hybridizing Java, Flash and WPF/E

Bruce Eckel has an interesting post on hybridizing Java with Flash. He notices the trend in the Java world to replace Java-based GUI frameworks (AWT, Swing, etc.) for Java apps by Flash.

Incidently, I came across one such app yesterday evening when I installed PowerSnap. The UI indeed was somewhat snappy. This application claims it can keep your locally stored photographs in sync with those posted on Flickr.

Of course, the major benefit of using Flash over UI technologies as WPF is reach. WPF only runs on a subset of the Windows platforms. PowerSnap is working on a Mac version which should be relatively easy because Java and Flash are available on the Mac.

WPF/E is nice and will be cross-platform but I think it will be confined to the browser in v1. Currently the WPF/E engine can only be scripted using JavaScript.

Maybe in future versions it can be used for the GUI layer of a standalone cross-platform .NET application. Microsoft is quietly working on versions of the CLR that will run on other platforms so that WPF/E can be "scripted" using C#. The work done by the .NET Compact Framework team already proves that this is possible. This CLR runs on devices like SmartPhones, PDAs and the Xbox 360.

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# re: Hybridizing Java, Flash and WPF/E

Thursday, February 01, 2007 10:08 AM by zproxy

Exactly what work are you referring to when talking about .NET CF team?

:)

# re: Hybridizing Java, Flash and WPF/E

Friday, February 02, 2007 12:05 PM by Erwyn van der Meer

I am referring to the work done by the .NET CF Team on making a version of the .NET Compact Framework that runs on the Xbox 360 in the XNA Framework.

# Silverlight (fka "WPF/E") and ASP.NET

Monday, April 16, 2007 1:33 AM by Erwyn van der Meer

Microsoft has announced that the little cross-platform, cross-browser cousin of Windows Presentation