Comments on: Zoho CEO on Flash vs Javascript http://www.itwriting.com/blog/426-zoho-ceo-on-flash-vs-javascript.html Tech writing blog Sun, 12 Feb 2012 21:04:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: randomwalker http://www.itwriting.com/blog/426-zoho-ceo-on-flash-vs-javascript.html/comment-page-1#comment-51168 randomwalker Tue, 11 Dec 2007 20:32:00 +0000 http://www.itwriting.com/blog/?p=426#comment-51168 Ok, I just tried buzzword. Cleaner UI? Maybe by the narrow definition of counting the number of widgets on the page. But it feels strange, alien because it's not using my browser's native widgets. The tab key didn't even work in the login screen.. I didn't get too far. I agree w.r.t zoho's home page though. They've got to focus on a few of their products! Ok, I just tried buzzword. Cleaner UI? Maybe by the narrow definition of counting the number of widgets on the page. But it feels strange, alien because it’s not using my browser’s native widgets. The tab key didn’t even work in the login screen.. I didn’t get too far.

I agree w.r.t zoho’s home page though. They’ve got to focus on a few of their products!

]]> By: Sridhar Vembu http://www.itwriting.com/blog/426-zoho-ceo-on-flash-vs-javascript.html/comment-page-1#comment-48925 Sridhar Vembu Fri, 30 Nov 2007 19:10:10 +0000 http://www.itwriting.com/blog/?p=426#comment-48925 Tim, There is a design philosophy choice to be made. At Zoho we believe in rich, reasonably full-featured applications - and that is actually consistent with the goal for the RIA architecture of Adobe as well. So my post was in the context of enabling such rich applications just how far Javascript has come. We use Flash in the Zoho suite (Zoho Meeting relies on it heavily, for example), and a year ago, I remember thinking we would do a lot more Flash development this year than we actually ended up doing. That was really the gist of my post. It is never a religious issue for us. As has been pointed out often in the past, most users use only 20% of the features of an application like MS Word, but the trouble is that each person uses a different 20%. Having said all that, I concede that the Zoho suite can look cluttered (we have been criticized for insufficient UI consistency & integration across products). Partly it arises from our depth-first philosophy - the goal is to make each individual product usable and useful by itself, before we integrate. That issue is orthogonal to Javascript or Flash and any deficiencies in the way we use these technologies should not reflect on their intrinsic merit. On the off-line capability, it will evolve. We are working with the Google Gears team (I want to commend their excellent support!) to make the whole experience a lot smoother and more automated. What we have today is essentially a "life-saver" - I have to get on the plane, and I need my crucial documents at that time - kind of thing. That's why we offered it in read-only mode first and have now extended it to read-write (with some limitations, which we will address over time). Thanks, Sridhar Tim,
There is a design philosophy choice to be made. At Zoho we believe in rich, reasonably full-featured applications – and that is actually consistent with the goal for the RIA architecture of Adobe as well. So my post was in the context of enabling such rich applications just how far Javascript has come. We use Flash in the Zoho suite (Zoho Meeting relies on it heavily, for example), and a year ago, I remember thinking we would do a lot more Flash development this year than we actually ended up doing. That was really the gist of my post. It is never a religious issue for us.

As has been pointed out often in the past, most users use only 20% of the features of an application like MS Word, but the trouble is that each person uses a different 20%.

Having said all that, I concede that the Zoho suite can look cluttered (we have been criticized for insufficient UI consistency & integration across products). Partly it arises from our depth-first philosophy – the goal is to make each individual product usable and useful by itself, before we integrate.

That issue is orthogonal to Javascript or Flash and any deficiencies in the way we use these technologies should not reflect on their intrinsic merit.

On the off-line capability, it will evolve. We are working with the Google Gears team (I want to commend their excellent support!) to make the whole experience a lot smoother and more automated. What we have today is essentially a “life-saver” – I have to get on the plane, and I need my crucial documents at that time – kind of thing. That’s why we offered it in read-only mode first and have now extended it to read-write (with some limitations, which we will address over time).

Thanks,
Sridhar

]]> By: Robin Wauters http://www.itwriting.com/blog/426-zoho-ceo-on-flash-vs-javascript.html/comment-page-1#comment-48838 Robin Wauters Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:42:18 +0000 http://www.itwriting.com/blog/?p=426#comment-48838 We rebuilt our online office solution with Google Web Toolkit, you can check it our here: http://beta.contactoffice.com We rebuilt our online office solution with Google Web Toolkit, you can check it our here: http://beta.contactoffice.com

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