The future of the Flex framework

As many of you probably know we made a few announcements last week that are quite interesting – let’s put it that way :). What made things even more interesting for Ryan and me is that we were right in the middle of the tour on mobile development (and we are still on tour for that matter). So we got your feedback first hand.

The good news is that last night the Flex team posted an update that adds more context and details about how Adobe plans to move Flex to Apache Software Foundation. And in short the essence of this update is that we still support Flex and Flash Builder; they won’t go away and we are not killing them. Here are some quotes from the post:

What specifically is Adobe proposing?

We are preparing two proposals for incubating Flex SDK and BlazeDS at the Apache Software Foundation.

In addition to contributing the core Flex SDK (including automation and advanced data visualization components), Adobe also plans to donate the following:

Complete, but yet-to-be-released, Spark components, including ViewStack, Accordion, DateField, DateChooser and an enhanced DataGrid.

BlazeDS, the server-based Java remoting and web messaging technology that enables developers to easily connect to back-end distributed data and push data in real-time to Flex applications.

Falcon, the next-generation MXML and ActionScript compiler that is currently under development (this will be contributed when complete in 2012)

Falcon JS, an experimental cross-compiler from MXML and ActionScript to HTML and JavaScript.

Flex testing tools, as used previously by Adobe, so as to ensure successful continued development of Flex with high quality

Adobe will also have a team of Flex SDK engineers contributing to those new Apache projects as their full-time responsibility. Adobe has in-development work already started, including additional Spark-based components.
Isn’t Adobe just abandoning Flex SDK and putting it out to Apache to die?

Absolutely not – we are incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved with Flex and know that it will continue to provide significant value for many years to come. We expect active and on-going contributions from the Apache community. To be clear, Adobe plans on steadily contributing to the projects and we are working with the Flex community to make them contributors as well.

You can read the whole post/update here. And drop a comment if you have something to share!

November 16, 2011 | Filed Under Flex | 4 Comments

Adobe Touch Apps are available now

We just launched the Adobe Touch Apps part of the Adobe Cloud. You will find the six apps in the Android Market with one of them being available for iOS too (iOS versions will follow). Just as a quick reminder the six apps are: Collage, Debut, Ideas, Kuler, Photoshop Touch, and Proto.

I think this is great because it was about time we had more apps for tablets that can be used to create digital content. So far developers and companies were extremely good at creating apps for consuming existing content on tablets. As I said many times it is a pity not to be able to create content on your tablet device. I think that with the Adobe Touch apps we are going in the right direction: you can start working on a prototype while you are commuting and all you have is your tablet. Once you get to your computer you can continue your work on the same file. And the synch process between your computer and tablets devices is transparent; it happens auto-magically.

You can read more about these apps here.

November 16, 2011 | Filed Under Others | 2 Comments

Bucharest Flash Camp 2011

This Friday we will host a Flash Camp in our Bucharest office. The event starts at 5:00 PM and will end at 8:00 PM. If you have questions about what was announced at MAX, if you want to find out what’s coming next, or if you want to learn how you can start mobile development with our tools, runtimes, and frameworks then make plans to be there. There are still a few seats left so you can go here and register.

This event is a premiere because for the first time I will have the pleasure of co-presenting (a Romanian event) with one of my American teammates: Ryan Stewart. So that is another reason to be there :)

And finally, we will have a hands-on session on getting startet with mobile development with Flex, AIR, and Flash Builder. So if you never tried Flex mobile and you want to learn the basics then you have a third reason to be there.

See you Friday!

Registration link.