Articles by Richard Monson-Haefel

AJAX RIA News - Which Technologies Will Carry the Rich Internet Torch?

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 07:30:00 EDT

If Gartner's assessment of AJAX's position on the Hype Cycle is correct, then the days when AJAX is the only game in town are over. Enter the age of what Anne Thomas Manes of the Burton Group calls 'Fit Clients' - a hybrid of Thick Clients (a.k.a. Fat Clients) and Thin Clients (HTML and RIA). Adobe AIR is definitely a Fit Client technology, but it's not the first and won't be the only player in this space.

AJAX RIA World - The Tale of Two Webs

Tue, 27 May 2008 14:45:00 EDT

When talking about the 'web' what are we referring to? For most people it's what can be experienced through their web browser including HTML, audio and video streaming, Flash-based animation, or rich Internet Application (RIA) interfaces. The key to this perspective is the web browser, which is viewed as essential for experiencing any type of content available via a hyperlink on the web.

The Next Battle for the Desktop

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 10:30:00 EDT

The computer desktop today is what the television was to people in the 1980s. It's the single most important channel for consumer entertainment and information. The computer desktop - as was the case with newspapers before there was radio and radio before there was television - has become the high ground from which empires are built.

Engelbart's Usability Dilemma: Efficiency vs Ease-of-Use

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:15:00 EDT

The mouse was the original idea of Doug Engelbart who was the head of the Augmentation Research Center (ARC) at Stanford Research Institute. Engelbart's philosophy is best embodied, in my opinion, in the design of another device that he invented, the five-finger keyboard - with keys like a piano, used by one hand. The problem was, Engelbart's five-finger keyboard and mouse combination was very difficult to learn.

The "Uncanny Valley" Theory Doesn't Apply to Desktop UI

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:45:00 EDT

If you design an application that runs on Windows but doesn't look exactly like Windows, so the old argument goes, the effect will be unsettling for users. But sticking to the native look and feel (L&F) should not be the end-goal of designers.

Enterprise Widgets: The Story So Far

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 02:45:00 EDT

Desktop widgets have been around for a very long time. The first set of desktop widgets were introduced by Apple back in 1983 with their release of Apple Desktop Accessories. Obviously Apple was way ahead of the curve, but these early widgets were not Internet enabled - the popular Internet, as we know it, didn't exist - so their utility was pretty limited.

The Grand Convergence: Web + RIA + Widgets + Client/Server

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 06:30:00 EDT

For the past ten years application developers have been stuck with only two desktop client choices. Traditionally, they can choose either a very thin Web-client technology implemented in HTML and CSS, or a very heavyweight thick client experience implemented using traditional client/server (C/S) technologies (e.g. Java Swing, MFC). It wasn't until the introduction of RIA technologies (e.g. AJAX, Adobe Flex, Curl, and Silverlight) and widget engines (e.g. Yahoo! Widgets and Google Gadgets) that we were given more options.

Why Microsoft Loves Google Android, Take 2

Tue, 25 Dec 2007 10:30:00 EST

Android is not bad like world hunger is bad, it's just not good for existing Java standards. My main thesis is this: If Android succeeds as it is currently defined then the entire Java platform, including Java SE, is in trouble. Android's success sends a clear message: Standardization of Java is not important; Write once, run anywhere is not important. That's the antithesis of what the Java platform is all about.

Why Microsoft Loves Google's Android

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 16:00:00 EST

You won't hear Microsoft say this out loud, but secretly they are celebrating Google's contribution of the Android mobile phone platform to the Open Handset Alliance. At least they ought to be. Android is perhaps the best thing to happen to Microsoft since they won the browser wars in the 1990s.

Guaranteed Messaging With JMS

Sun, 01 Apr 2001 00:00:00 EST

The notion of guaranteed delivery of Java Message Service messages has been lightly touched on in other recently published articles on JMS. But what really makes a JMS message 'guaranteed'? Should you just take it on faith, or would you like to know what's behind it?

Design Patterns

Sun, 01 Jun 1997 00:00:00 EDT

Design Patterns are blueprints that describe how to design class structures and object interactions to solve commonly encountered problems. A Design Pattern can be as simple as the practice of using an interface to achieve polymorphism and as complicated as designs used to solve intricate concurrency problems.