I thought that this title would get your attention.
I love the r.a.d. tool suite because the engineering that goes into these products is top-notch.
But what I'm going to make a push for here is to now take the tools to the next level by adding GUI sexiness to the mix. What I'm getting at here is that web world seems to be quickly becoming Web 2.0 centric with AJAX all the buzz and technologies like
JSON and visual effects libraries like
Dojo,
Scriptaculous,
moo.fx, and
Walter Zorn's Drag and Drog library.
I think that now is time to add visual pizzazz to all of the tools including alpha channeled PNG graphics (as standard, even with IE), opacity, color shifting of objects, fading, animation (both linear and along paths such as parabolas, ellipse, sinoidal, etc.) and of course acceleration of objects in motion (acceleration and deceleration). In other words, could
telerik make a standard "library" of features that all of its tools could call upon -- ala "
prototype" or "
behaviour" or "
scriptaculous".
If this could be so, then I would propose that we send telerik links to examples of what we really really want in such a "library". This will help them visualize exactly what would need to be addressed in order to make our products visually act as we desire.
As I see it, there would be several sub-library modules that would drive the whole solution, but only be called in js if they were actually needed in order to perform a function -- ala Dojo. This would keep the .js files sizes down to a reasonable level.
Here a a possible starting point:
- radBrowserCaps.js - browser sniffing
- radDOMHelper.js - akin to "prototype.js" helper functions
- radEventHandler.js - CSS integrated behaviors
- radSlider.js - slider functionality
- radGlidePath - object movement path calculation
- radAnimation.js - object movement and acceleration
- radOpacity.js - opacity shifting - ie fading
- radSizing.js - object sizing
- radObjectWrappers.js - wrappers for embedded object inclusion into webpages including: Flash, Media Player, JAVA Applets, Quicktime, Real Player, etc.
- radEffects.js - predesigned effects combining several transitions
- radAJAXJSON.js - AJAX and JSON functionality
- radWhatever.js - who knows what this will be, but I'm sure it will be something
This could all be the basis for new cool telerik solution-specific turnkey products like:
- r.a.d.Chat
- r.a.d.OutlookClone
- r.a.d.PictureBrowser - ala Flicker
- r.a.d.WidgetEngine
Anybody else want this stuff? I want my web apps to have content that glides-in, fades-out and fades-in, collapses smoothly, puffs-away, moves offscreen in a smooth arc in gradual acceleration, self-adjust in size, auto-scrolls, etc. Now is that too much to ask?? Well maybe, but I know that it really is quite doable now-a-days!
I have alot of samples that I would love to share in order to give telerik some inspiration of what's possible... but I'll save that for another thread.
Thanks for listening!
-Mark