Today's Web programmers face a big choice when it comes to fancier aspects of their sites: HTML or Flash? One start-up hopes it can bridge the gap with a technology called FluidHTML.
FluidHTML shows its technology to build Flash applications with HTML-style programming with this Pong demo.
(Credit: Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)The start-up, FHTML, announced software Monday at the TechCrunch50 conference that's intended to give HTML-style programmers the ability to use Flash features.
FluidHTML's language is an extension of HTML, the company said. "We borrow a lot of the really good ideas from HTML, because why wouldn't we?" said Chief Executive Michael Collette at the conference.
The approach holds some promise--but it also poses some risks. It may be complicated trying to get HTML and Flash programmers to work together, but at least those are established disciplines. FluidHTML requires a language known by neither set of coders right now, and the technology is supported just by a start-up still seeking its own programming staff and $1 million to $2 million in venture funding.
HTML, the traditional language of the Web, got its start showing just text and images with basic layouts. The second, begun by Macromedia and now led by Adobe Systems, is better suited for animations and flashy graphics, video, and increasingly, applications as well.
But a different set of programming skills are required to build Flash-powered sites or applications, so it doesn't always coexist easily on the same Web site. Programming is getting even more complicated as Flash converges with HTML and its companion, JavaScript.
FluidHTML relies on a Flash software module that programmers can embed in their Web pages. It interprets the HTML-esque code to supply Flash features such as vector graphics, sound, and video.
"The markup language supports very powerful commands (tags) and can do remarkable things that take enormous development effort in Flash," the company said. "FluidHTML RIAs (rich Internet applications) can be developed by less expensive programmers and require fewer man-hours to build than Flash."
I may get fired for saying this, but I miss the convenience, focus, and robustness of desktop apps. Sometimes I just want the clarity of a dedicated app--or the isolation; all too often when I'm in a browser, a rogue JavaScript-heavy site will crash not just its own window but the 20 different tabs I have open at that moment.
Building a Site-Specific Browser (SSB) is possible with technologies like Prism from Mozilla, but that doesn't do much for non-developer users. If all you want is an icon to click on your desktop to open a specific URL, and running the site in its own browser isn't what you had in mind, check out two apps: Fluid (download), for OSX, and Bubbles (download) for Windows. Both are free.
With Fluid, you can create as many SSBs as you want, control each of their preferences individually, and let them live where you need them: in the Dock, your desktop, or the Apple Menubar. I especially like the latter because I've created icons for four sites I check on and off during the day. Fluid, which requires Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard), also lets you create a single SSB with multiple panes fed from different sites, add a CoverFlow-like preview pane of links leading from the Web app you've desktopized, and will with a bit of Greasemonkey scripting it can alert you via Growl when something changes. Fluid is freeware, says it's creator, Todd Ditchendorf, and will remain so, although he's seeing over 20,000 downloads a month.
Fluid strips the chrome off of your favorite Web sites.
Bubbles for Windows lets you do much the same thing as Fluid. You can update your Windows environment with your latest Web apps as pop-up windows accessible from the system tray. Bubbles' developer, Ohad Eder Pressman, has gone to the trouble of prebuilding extensions for a dozen-plus popular Web apps: Want a Facebook bubble app that refreshes your FB News Feed every 5 minutes, or a Bubble that checks Gmail for you? You're done.
Bubbles' scripts make selected sites look and feel like apps.
Users will always need free-form browsers for exploring the Web, but for their main Web apps, site-specific browsers can do a good job of imitating the local app experience.
Got a Mac and a Muxtape account? You've got to check out this mashup that uses the free Mac application Fluid to let you browse an entire group of people's Muxtapes without having to click on each one. Once you've linked up Fluid to Muxtape.com's front page, you'll see the track listings of each album in the Cover Flow area below the site. Clicking the thumbnail will take you right to the mix, which is far easier than simply clicking on people's mixes from Muxtape's front page and directory.
Setting up Fluid to do this isn't hard, but you should definitely watch the great tutorial put together by one of my new favorite blogs Internet Jogging:
[via ReadWriteWeb and Digg]
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