Comparisons with Flash MX?

[Terry Judd]

>Thanks for the feedback Troy, could I just ask for a bit more detail:
>
>>MX is very weak when it comes to system level operations and use 
>>and/or management of local files. It has no ability to "talk" with 
>>hardware.
>
>I haven't got MX yet (my upgrade is in the post!) but one of my 
>customers reckons he can save local data on a client machine, not 
>just return it to a server? Does this ring true with you?

Director shockwave allows you to write 'pref' (text) files to a 
dedicated shockwave folder. Presumably Flash can do the same.

>
>My client is looking to develop web-based information capture and 
>advice using anything from desktops, to laptops and PDAs as the 
>client.  He had been considering Java, but has been tempted by Flash 
>MX.  He thinks it will provide a richly interactive front end for 
>his data capture (into back end databases using XML etc.) and for 
>displaying his advisor information, all from inside a browser window.

If it's got to happen in a browser then Flash would seem to be a 
reasonable way to go. It's also got pretty robust built in XML 
support.

-- 
___________________________________________________________________________
Dr Terry Judd

Lecturer in Instructional Design / Multimedia Developer
Biomedical Multimedia Unit
Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry & Health Sciences
The University of Melbourne
Email: t.judd at bmu.unimelb.edu.au
Phone: 03 9344 0187
Fax: 03 9344 4998
___________________________________________________________________________