Opinion: Microsoft's new interactive designer is a heavyweight contender, but is it really battling Flash?
Flash has been spreading across the Internet like animated kudzu in recent years, powering dynamic applications in everything from traditionally staid banking sites to digital photo tools. Earlier this year, Adobe made a big stir by acquiring Macromedia, and it has been argued that the purchase was so that Adobe could acquire Macromedia's Flash.
Flash, it seems, is delivering on the promise of the interactive Internet. And all the while, it has appeared that Microsoft was too focused on search, XML and .Net to notice this revolution.
Guess again.
Yesterday at Microsoft's Professional Developer's Conference (PDC), the company announced a new product called Expression Sparkle Interactive Designer. Sparkle is one of three products in the Expression suite of graphics tools.
"Our goal is to redefine what is considered a 'good enough' user experience," said Microsoft senior vice president Eric Rudder.
"Sparkle Interactive Designer is a bridge between the graphics illustrator, who is creating drawings using Expression Graphics Designer, and the application developer building solutions using Visual Studio 2005," said Microsoft's Forest Kay, who manages the Acrylic product and also contributes significantly to Sparkle development.
Through Sparkle, designers can create graphically pleasing interactive experiences in a common format shared with the programmers. The common format is XAML (pronounced ZAM-ALL) an XML schema at the core of Microsoft's new Windows Presentation Foundation.
So, is Sparkle a Flash-killer?
The Flash Effect
When you look at the new applications created with Sparkle you can not help but be reminded of Macromedia's Flash. The controls, layout and use of vector paths for the design all look like Flash applications.
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Many of the tools built into Sparkle you will recognize from Macromedia's Flash 8; such as animation timelines, vector and bitmap image support, drawing tools, event-driven interactivity, drawing tools, support for video and audio, and more.
There are, however, key technologies supported in Sparkle that separate it from Flash. One of the first things that will impress you with Sparkle is support for 3D. Macromedia's Flash loosely supports 3D through complex scripts or animation created with products such as eRain's Swift 3D. Flash does not have the capability to support 3D models. Sparkle gives you this ability and to stunning effect.
Sparkle also gives developers the full breadth of programming languages such as C# to add interactivity to their solutions. You will find familiar development tools such as IntelliSense and debugging along with data aware controls that can be bound to databases such as SQL Server.
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Sparkle's greatest triumph, however, is that it adequately links the designer and the software engineer together. Through a common language, XAML, software will have the ability to look and feel significantly more engaging than it does today.
"Macromedia Flash, in my opinion, is becoming less of a significant player as developers shift from Flash to using DHTML and "Ajax" to create applications like GMail and Google Maps," wrote Jon Meyer, former Sparkle team program manager, on his blog. "Today many developers view Flash as a tool best suited for web video and advertising, and not for the "heavy lifting" required in substantial applications. I see this trend continuing, unless Adobe significantly enhances Flash, e.g. with 3D, more audio and video formats, access to native code, a revised security model, more sophisticated text, faster script execution speed, and an open runtime of the breadth and richness of .NET."
The Microsoft Gotcha
What Sparkle can deliver sounds all well and good. But, should you be running out and buying Sparkle today and throwing your copy of Flash out of the Window?
No.
First of all, you can't. Sparkle applications are being developed for the upcoming release of Windows Vista. That means you need to wait until the third or fourth quarter of 2006 to deploy your Sparkle applications. You can deploy your Flash applications now.
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What's more, Sparkle comes at a high price. You must have the Windows Presentation Foundation installed to view any content. Windows Presentation Foundation is able to deliver beautiful 3D experiences because Microsoft assumes you have a high-end video card on your computer.
If you are running Windows XP SP2 then you can download a beta release of Windows Presentation Foundation. But remember, you'll also be running beta software today that is apt to change, break and, potentially, crash your computer.
The bottom line is that Sparkle adoption may be hampered because it will only run with Windows Presentation Foundation.
Should Macromedia (and Adobe) Be Concerned?
Yes, Macromedia—and Adobe, who is in the process of buying them—should be deeply concerned that Microsoft is moving into their territory. Taken together, Sparkle and the Windows Presentation Foundation are a threat to Flash, especially since Macromedia has been pushing Flash as a development platform with tools such as their new streaming media server.
Macromedia officials, however, declined the opportunity to comment for this article.
But for Sparkle to even get in the ring with Flash, Microsoft has to first convince us that we need to move from Windows XP to Windows Vista. This migration will take time, possibly as much as five years. In the meantime, Macromedia has just released Flash 8 and can anticipate over 250 million unique downloads between now and when Windows Vista begins to sell.
Macromedia's Flash is universally available on all versions of Windows, Mac, Linux, handheld devices and even cell phones. With Flash you may not have some of the tight integration tools Sparkle boasts, but you do have an installed base. At the end of the day it is what customers have installed and not what they should have installed that matters. And what they have today is Flash.
Web Design 
