O’Reilly: Inside RIA

First of all, let me start off by saying that this is NOT another blog article in the great RIA platform debate. While I am an AJAX developer, and have been for several years now, the point of this article is not to take sides and convince you that AJAX is the best RIA tool available. Because AJAX isn't. Except when it is. You see, tools have uses, and to say that any one platform is in all ways superior is, I think, overstating things. A lot. Yes, I'm a bit biased, but not so much so that I feel the need to convince people that AJAX has no flaws. Flex and Silverlight have strengths that lay against weaknesses in AJAX, and vice versa. The question isn't “Which platform is best”, but “Which platform best fits my needs”.