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Microsoft's Sparkle a Flash Killer?
Charmless1 writes to tell us eWeek is reporting that Microsoft has release new previews of their upcoming developer tools. Some have even dubbed these new tools as "Flash killers". From the article: "Microsoft's Expression Suite consists of the Expression Graphic Designer, Expression Interactive Designer and the Expression Web Designer. Microsoft has yet to release a CTP for the Web Designer, also known by its codename Quartz." Slashdot also covered some of the pre-release sentiments back in September.
I can easily see the mentality that makes Microsoft want to kill the competition: "Fucking is a fucking pussy. I'm going to fucking bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to fucking kill ."
All of this junk is supposed to generate XAML for .NET apps to build their UI's with. In true MS fashion, XAML syntax is such an unmanagable mess that of course it needs graphical tools to generate the markup. XAML has less separation of content and presentation than HTML 3.2 (!). Come on, it's not 1997 any more, everyone with a brain doing markup-based UI design knows that color, margin, font family, and border are all style properties, not tag attributes.
Because of this, I consider XAML the undeniable proof that no one at MS truly understands what style is for, how a DOM is supposed to work, or what extensible means.
The only way this can possibly be a Flash killer is if all these are true:
Macs are for different thinkers.
I think they prefer to be called "special thinkers." They have feelings too, you insensitive clod.
The one thing the Apple had to make up for it's ugly GUI was it's specialized chipset that bucked every industry standard. This "feature" meant difficulty in programming, lack of third party support, and questionable performance compared even when compared to cheaper Intel chips.
Of course, I'm sure many people can see the "beauty" in beating a perfecftly good copy of Unix with an ugly stick until all the buttons are round. As for "unattractive squares should stick to Linux and Windows" - there is a an elegant simplicity in the power and speed of the command prompt, you can navigate all of Windows with a keyboard (I challenge anyone to show me where you cannot), and you can even make your Windows OS look like a freakin' Mac if you wanted.
Artists, fashion mavens, scientists, and other creative personalities can sit down with a MacBook Pro running the latest dot-update of Tiger and comprehend its sensitive, tasteful aesthetic
Ooooh, I'd stay away from those updates. The poor programming of Apple has finally caught up with the arrogance of their users with rather serious security flaw with the updater. Evidently, no-one thought it a good idea to use encryption of any sort for at least two generations of the operating system's update program - 'cuz there aren't, and never will be, any exploits for the Mac, y'see.
Intelligent people use the OS pioneering new technological, legal, ethical, and economic territory. People seeking careers also know how to program "ugly little squares." Ignorant elitists are mesmerized by all the shiny, round buttons and willing to pay a premium for the privilege.
Of course, comparing Macs with Linux boxes is like comparing Apples with computers...
DATABASE WOW WOW
""Visual" anything is a BAD way to go because it generates a bunch of code for you, and half the time you don't even know what the hell it does. Is it secure code? You don't know - you didn't write it. Such code could make apps prone to things like buffer overflows. Is that what you want for your users? If your argument is for code reusability or how quick you can build an app, it's easy enough to reuse code that you previously wrote."
Of all the posts I've ever read, anywhere, this has to be the most ignorant of them all. You are truly the most fucked-up person to ever touch a computer.
Fact: Unless you write every single bit yourself (no assembler, no compiler, no external libraries), you have no idea if the code is secure. You are, to say it again, totally fucked-up to think that a RAD environment is automatically worse than using glibc in terms of security or bugginess.