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German government warns against using Internet Explorer

My past posts on the widening gulf between "modern" browsers and Internet Explorer have generated so much interest that I thought I'd forward this link.

At the same time as Microsoft is grappling with the PR disaster triggered by these latest security vulnerabilities, browsers like Firefox, Safari and Chrome are powering ahead, with native features that rival the best of what Flash/Flex and Silverlight have to offer, and performance that often far outdoes them.

As a kind of a spectacular conjuring trick to illustrate this, Tobias Schneider has published a Flash runtime written in pure JavaScript. No, that's not a typo -- it executes Flash swf's, in Ajax. No plug-in required.

Check out the demos. Source code is here.

And no, it doesn't work in IE.

Works on an iPhone, though...

 

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Comments: (4)

A Finextra member
A Finextra member 18 January, 2010, 16:48Be the first to give this comment the thumbs up 0 likes

Javascript is a nice tool for any web developer to use. As long as the developer uses it appropriately.

The demos in the link you provide make the cardinal sin of using javascript for "core" functionality, i.e. something that must happen for the page to display correctly - as opposed to using javascript to extend existing functionality, i.e. using javascript for extended "Bells & Whistles".

Not every browser has javascript installed (e.e Braille readers), or the browser has certain restrictions placed upon it by corporate IT Departments (some banks & financial institutes).

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A Finextra member
A Finextra member 18 January, 2010, 17:00Be the first to give this comment the thumbs up 0 likes

Dirk - it's true that JavaScript is not always enabled in the browser. But more browsers have JavaScript enabled than have Flash or Silverlight installed. (We check the stats regularly). And as more and more banks move towards RIA-based trading offerings, Ajax is probably the most widely used approach. JavaScript is now well established as a serious programming language for core functionality.

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A Finextra member
A Finextra member 18 January, 2010, 17:08Be the first to give this comment the thumbs up 0 likes

I agree that it's "well-established". Personally, I wouldn't use javascript for core funectionality and I wouldn't reccommend any developers to! Many people do though, and it seems to be that they don't weigh up the pros & cons first. Or search for alternatives to javascript, or provide an alternative view for those browsers without javascript enabled.

The demos in your link could be made to run without the need for javascript, consideration does need to be made for those with accessibility issues.

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A Finextra member
A Finextra member 19 January, 2010, 10:36Be the first to give this comment the thumbs up 0 likes

Hi Paul - I now understand that you were talking about Web apps, and agree that for an app built upon ajax then the JS in the links is completely appropriate in this context.

Dirk

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