P
Peter Webb
I need to make a reasonably big decision, and I need some advice.
I have used C# to make some pretty nice and potentially very educational
toys/animation. One does n body orbit simulations, another does gas
molecules interacting according to the ideal gas law, and another generates
hypercycloids. I have loaded them up with eye candy, and they produce
terrific graphics - I would expect that many children/teens would use them
as pattern generators, and the maths is secondary - but the maths gives a
strong educational connection if teachers want to use my site.
Building them in C# was probably a hopeless decision if I want to distribute
the software. Nobody is going to want to download the program and install
it, but these are absolutely ideal for running in web pages, as all they do
is draw to the screen (and potentially print). It would be far, far better
if somebody could just go a web site, click on the buttons, and generate the
patterns in a "picturebox" in the browser.
I could convert my program to use asp calls, but I don't think they will
solve my problem. The image is generated dynamically (its an animation) so
for this to be feasible the calculations and drawing must occur in the
client. I don't think asp will give me that. Installing ActiveX controls is
not practical if I want people to use the program.
What would be absolutely ideal (and the only really practical approach in my
opinion) is if the whole program was self contained in the client, and all
my server has to do in serve up the page containing the animation code which
runs locally. That way I can host it on any web server.
I assume this means I will need to convert my program to use some form of
client side Java. I don't know Java, but a month ago I didn't know C# (or
any C variant), so I figure I can learn what I need to know in another
couple of weeks if this is my best option.
So, what environment should I develop in? Do any of the VS Express Edition
languages support this architecture? If not, where should I go and what
should I do?
I have used C# to make some pretty nice and potentially very educational
toys/animation. One does n body orbit simulations, another does gas
molecules interacting according to the ideal gas law, and another generates
hypercycloids. I have loaded them up with eye candy, and they produce
terrific graphics - I would expect that many children/teens would use them
as pattern generators, and the maths is secondary - but the maths gives a
strong educational connection if teachers want to use my site.
Building them in C# was probably a hopeless decision if I want to distribute
the software. Nobody is going to want to download the program and install
it, but these are absolutely ideal for running in web pages, as all they do
is draw to the screen (and potentially print). It would be far, far better
if somebody could just go a web site, click on the buttons, and generate the
patterns in a "picturebox" in the browser.
I could convert my program to use asp calls, but I don't think they will
solve my problem. The image is generated dynamically (its an animation) so
for this to be feasible the calculations and drawing must occur in the
client. I don't think asp will give me that. Installing ActiveX controls is
not practical if I want people to use the program.
What would be absolutely ideal (and the only really practical approach in my
opinion) is if the whole program was self contained in the client, and all
my server has to do in serve up the page containing the animation code which
runs locally. That way I can host it on any web server.
I assume this means I will need to convert my program to use some form of
client side Java. I don't know Java, but a month ago I didn't know C# (or
any C variant), so I figure I can learn what I need to know in another
couple of weeks if this is my best option.
So, what environment should I develop in? Do any of the VS Express Edition
languages support this architecture? If not, where should I go and what
should I do?