I’ve attended an interesting panel including representatives of different technologies and frameworks (AJAX, Flex, DOJO, DWR, JSF, JAVA/JWS). These are some of sparced raw notes.I decided not to put names here, because the notes are not complete.

People like desktop because they need performance and ability to work in a disconnected mode. Also, people like the Web deployment model. Flex fits all of these requirements.

Can we take Java as a serious programming language? It’s very easy to make mistake in JavaScript. You can’t understand JavaScript until you run it. Do not expect it to be Java. If you love classes, run away from JavaScript.

Flex’s implements ECMAScript4, which supports strong typing, and if you know what are you dealing with you can achieve good performance.

Closures are very good features, and Java does not have them. JavaScript is not a good general programming language.

JSF creates and renders JavaScript for you. JSF encapsulate all different artifacts.

If you are in financial services, polling or HTTPConnections may not be a good idea. You can use either sockets or message service.

If you try to keep HTTP connection open, you have only two connections in IE. It’s not enough.

How do you decide if you do polling or you keep connection open.

Consumer/producers give you a flexible programming model . Your application is isolated from the polling or socket technology.

DOJO has poor documentation. Why bother, just right click and View Source :).

How many people are exited about using Flash. Only a handful of people raised their hands. Maybe because it’s proprietary and also it’s a plugin.

Five years ago, the programming model has involved timelines, people did not really understand how to use it.

Flex is free, the source code is published. Adobe wants to keep control over Flash player, which is a VM. Flash is a plugin, but it does not make it a second class citizen.

Creator of the DWR framework said that is not finished yet, and it relies on his time availability to finish it?!? I (YF) would not take such product seriously.

Swing is difficult to use. Answer: An API doubles the IQ test. :)) Flexibility comes with a price. Sun is trying to address it, for example they work on data binding. Does it means that in about 2-3 years it’ll be easier? :)))

Why have not applets gain traction? They are restricted to a rectangular box, and it takes a long time to start them.

Can you comment on Google’s W2T kit that lets you write Java that executes JavaScript? The solution is incomplete at this point.

Any thoughts on Backbase?

Hi AJAX and Java guys are planning to address complex GUI layouts? Java has GridbagLayout, but people need something easier. GroupLayout should help (Matisse, Netbeans). The good GUI builder in Java is about 10 years over due. In AJAX and browsers it’s not pretty, but you can do it. JSF has a concept of the component children, which helps with layouts.

The latest versions of Flash are not available on all platforms. Yes, Windows and Mac are the prime targets, and Linux will come next.

Flex has a component-based development env: Flex Builder, an Eclipse plugin with debugger and rich library

of components. You do not have to have a Flex server, you can talk directly to your Java components or Web services.