Flex 4 vs JavaScript Options (Cappuccino, JQuery, etc.)

Question

Rehashing an older post: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1570070/jquery-vs-flex-choosing-a-platform-for-saas

We are preparing to develop an application that is exceptionally dynamic and interactive. It's particularly heavy on the graphics side.

We are 85% convinced that Adobe Flash built atop Flex is the right path to take, however Cappuccino is quite nice and seems as though it may be able to nearly fit the bill.

The only pause we have right now is portability for the iPhone. With the lack of blessings from Apple we will most certainly have to create a 2nd interface for the iPhone for the site, however... Having two interfaces may not be bad as it will likely have to be custom anyway to take advantage of the differences that it affords.

Any further thoughts or reevaluations of points enumerated in the noted article? Further, Flex 4 adds a lot of strength to the position mentioned previously regarding UI development. Fx4 is very nice vs Fx3 and shaves 90% from the development time when coupled with Flash Catalyst, which is not really always fully appropriate, but with some round trip tricks it seems as though it can cut through things rather well...

Please do advise and many thanks.

Answer 1

IMO, it's a choice between a proprietary technology (Flash/Flex) and standards-based technology (Javascript/DHTML). If you're concerned about your web app running on as many platforms as possible, the choice is crystal clear.

Flash is dying (but that's just my personal opinion). Not because Apple doesn't want it, but because it hasn't evolved like the other web technologies. It's slow, big, eats up CPU and memory, and above all, it requires that the user installs a plugin built by one single company.

Answer 2

I would always go with javascript over Flash, simply because it performs better. Flash in Internet Explorer on Windows performs well. Flash in Firefox is quite a bit worse, and Flash in Firefox in OS X is just pathetic. This is especially an issue on laptops as Flash is quite CPU intensive. So you might have a fancy webpage, but the computer sounds like an airplane because the CPU is overheating.

While Flash can do some really fancy effects, jquery and similar frameworks has moderately fancy animation effects, which is usually enough for web applications.

Answer 3

HTML 5 and javascript would be the way to go imho. Restrict the browsers to the latest and greatest if you have to.

EDIT: I guess the js frameworks are not quite there, but are probably very close. You would be on the bleeding edge which is not always good for project deadlines. I think people feel that the effort is worth it because of duplicated effort for iphone/ipad and that it is a solid foundation for the future. Look at libraries like http://raphaeljs.com/ and sites like http://www.chromeexperiments.com/ before making a decision