New York Times Reader

I just downloaded and installed the Avalon-based the New York Times reader.

This is one nice Avalon application, it distinguishes itself from all the samples that I have seen because it lacks a video playing in the background, and the buttons have not been rotated 30 degrees. It is one cute application, and I might have to eat my own words if someone from the New York Times developer team starts raving about their experience.

A few years ago, before the Ajax revolution, it was to me pretty clear that Flash based frameworks and Avalon would pose a real threat to the web as we know it. Unlike the Web, developing applications with Flash or Avalon could be a more consistent developer experience than the combination of HTML, HTTP, CSS and JavaScript and the dozen other elements that must be mastered to create modern web applications. At least, they have a certain appeal to some developer segments.

Robert O'Callahan from Novell weighs in on this subject, and offers a few alternatives on how things could be improved on the web world.

Of course, the real solution is for someone to implement an open source Avalon stack to run on top of Mono. No applause, just throw money.

Or developers.