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by Tim M >> Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:23:00 GMT

I've noticed Jade is heading towards more dot net interoperability, JadeXAMLControl, and the road-map says about more WPF to come. The way it's heading is going to break portability rather than extending it. I was kinda hoping Jade could be ported to mac as I've said in my previous posts here but unless mono takes off this won't even work on Linux. Why is it that Jade chooses WPF rather than flex? IMHO flex is nicer to use and can be compiled to adobe air files which can run standalone on win/mac/Linux or alternatively compiled to .swf for web browsers.

Thnx

Tim M.

by Dean Cooper >> Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:14:22 GMT

While the current Roadmap PDF still talks about a WPF desktop thin client, we have recently shifted our focus to researching the possibility of deploying JADE GUIs into browsers via Silverlight. Right now, this would very much be our preferred option and if our investigations prove conclusive, then the Roadmap will be updated to reflect our new Silverlight direction.

When we first started looking into WPF, Silverlight 1 did not provide sufficient capabilities to support JADE GUI deployment. Silverlight 2 changes all of that. At the recent Microsoft PDC in LA, our CTO saw first-hand the investment that Microsoft is putting into Silverlight and what it is capable of. So we want to leverage the research we've already done into WPF and XAML on the desktop to see how quickly we might be able to deliver a Silverlight GUI deployment model.

You're correct that Flex is also a viable alternative. And we don't believe there's anything we're doing in terms of GUI architecture that would rule out a Flex option in the future, if demand justifies it. However, given the work we've already done around WPF and XAML, as well as the enhanced .NET integration being delivered in JADE 6.3, we believe that Silverlight is the best first option for us. We also have several large customers who would prefer us to concentrate on Silverlight in the first instance.

Silverlight 2 is already available for Mac OS X:

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/d ... light.html

And Novell (as part of the Mono project) already have a Moonlight beta available that implements Silverlight on Linux:
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article ... t?eid=-255

At PDC the head of the Mono project demonstrated .NET running on Linux under Mono. In fact, he told a story of a UK game engine customer who is using the Mono CLR on *Windows* in favour of the Microsoft CLR because they find they get better performance for what they're doing. He also said that Microsoft are collaborating closely with them on Moonlight, which makes a lot of sense from Microsoft's point of view. We've also tested JADE 6.3's ...NET integration using Mono to verify that it works. So Mono/Moonlight are looking positive.

Dean.