Updated links from Adobe concerning flash and flex

1) http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/flex-announcements.html
is official clarification from Adobe

2) http://blogs.adobe.com/flex/2011/11/your-questions-about-flex.html
please pay attention to the "updated" section

3)http://www.mikechambers.com/blog/2011/11/11/clarifications-on-flash-player-for-mobile-browsers-the-flash-platform-and-the-future-of-flash/
more technical explanation

questions about flex - flash

just quotqtion:
Trent Weber wrote:

David,

There are a few key points that you failed to highlight which is causing the community concern:

1. Adobe had massive layoffs and is in the process of restructuring. We do not know which organizations were affected although we do know a key adobe air employee was reassigned to something else.
2. Adobe announces that they are focusing on html5 as the future
3. Adobe buys phonegap which is a competing product to adobe air. Initially it seemed like a complementary product until the recent html5 hyper-focus.
4. Adobe gives flex to the spoon community
5. Adobe states that they are going to add flash player functionality to the browser webkit in order to improve html5
6. Adobe states that they are going to focus many of their developers on html5.
7. Adobe discontinues flash for mobile devices (This is the least important issue)

The above issues raise the following concerns:
Concern 1. How long is Adobe Air going to be supported and improved if Adobe is focusing on html5 and developers have been moved to other things?
Concern 2. How long is the flash player for desktop going to be supported and improved if Adobe is trying to get the flash player features added to the webkit and developers have been moved to other things?
Concern 3. What is going to happen to flex in the long run especially if developers have been moved to other things?
Concern 4. How am I going to maintain my existing products if adobe stops supporting Adobe Air or Flash Player?
Concern 5: What would I migrate to if something did happen? Is there even an acceptable transition path or is my code useless?
Concern 6: Do I start any new projects in Adobe Air, Flex, Flash or do I cut my losses right now?

The above concerns could be partially addressed if the following was done:
Resolution 1. An Adobe Air road map or, at least, a guaranteed time frame in which Adobe Air will be around.
Resolution 2: A Flash Player road map or, at least, a guaranteed time frame in which flash player for the desktop will be around. Marketing dollars should also be spent to say that flash is still alive and will be here for the long run.
Resolution 3: A road map of the future regarding flex
Resolution 4: Some sort of guaranteed time frame for Adobe Air.
Resolution 5: Some sort of migration path from Flex/Actionscript to html5.
Resolution 6: The resolution of this concern depends on the above concerns.

So far the information we have received from Adobe has been somewhat vague. In addition, Adobe is currently going through a restructuring process with the layoffs which makes them slower to respond which only increases our concern. At this time lack of information is kind of causing folks to assume the worst and they appear to be acting accordingly.

I should mention that Adobe has answered some of the above concerns but conflicting information from Adobe is causing those answers to be viewed with a sliver of doubt. For example, adobe’s commitment to flash while the quarterly filing states something like their  focused is html5.

Last rumors about Flash and Flex (compilation)

We are discussing last rumors about Flash and Flex.

 1)      Flash to Focus on PC Browsing and Mobile Apps;
Adobe to More Aggressively Contribute to HTML5

http://blogs.adobe.com/conversations/2011/11/flash-focus.html

2)      Your Questions About Flex (Adobe’s plans around the Flex SDK)

http://blogs.adobe.com/flex/2011/11/your-questions-about-flex.html

Flash Platform                       http://www.adobe.com/flashplatform

device	Flash/Flex on PC (Windows, Mac, Unix)		Flash/Flex on mobile devices
			Android (all version)		iOS (iPad, iPhone)	RIM (Blackberry & Tablets)	Other
Flash Platform Tool	Flash Player 11 for browsers	AIR 3 native applications	Flash Player 11 for mobile browsers (last wersion will be 11.1)	AIR 3.1.0.488 mobile applications	AIR publish AIR project as native iOS application	AIR publish AIR project as native RIM application
links	http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer.html	http://www.adobe.com/products/air.html	https://market.android.com/details?id=com.adobe.flashplayer	https://market.android.com/details?id=com.adobe.air	http://www.adobe.com/devnet/air/air_for_ios.html	http://www.adobe.com/devnet/devices/blackberry.html http://us.blackberry.com/developers/tablet/adobe.jsp

1.       Adobe is still committed to Flex

a.       Flex SDK 4.5 – current version

b.      Flex SDK 4.6 – next version
(it will be released on November 29^th 2011)

c.       moving to the open development model
(several developers from Adobe +  flex community)      

2.       Adobe is still committed to Flash Builder

Future releases will support open sourced Flex SDK. 

3.       Adobe is focusing on

a.       PC Browsing (Flash player plugin for PC)

b.      AIR = Mobile Apps
… focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores …

c.       More Aggressively Contribute to HTML5

http://blogs.adobe.com/flashplatform/2011/11/flash-to-focus-on-pc-browsing-and-mobile-apps-adobe-to-more-aggressively-contribute-to-html5.html

http://www.mikechambers.com/blog/2011/11/11/clarifications-on-flash-player-for-mobile-browsers-the-flash-platform-and-the-future-of-flash/

4.       Does Adobe recommend we use Flex or HTML5 for our enterprise application development?

a.       “In the long-term, we believe HTML5 will be the best technology for enterprise application development.”  :-( killing phrase

But now Flex has clear benefits:

-          features

-          development tools

-          support for mobile devices development (base on AIR)

The AIR runtime is the best technology for building downloadable applications that run on every major digital operating system in the world. With one code base, development teams can build applications that run on Windows, OSX, Android, and iOS. There is no technology that even comes close in terms of its robustness, feature set, language and toolset quality, flexibility, and developer community.

HTML has always been 2 steps behind Flash. ALWAYS. Web animations, AJAX, 2-way data streams, video, teleconferencing, 3D.

b.      “Given our experiences innovating on Flex, we are extremely well positioned to positively contribute to the advancement of HTML5 development, starting with mobile applications. In fact, many of the engineers and product managers who worked on Flex SDK will be moving to work on our HTML efforts. We will continue making significant contributions to open web technologies like WebKit & jQuery

Possible ways to develop new tool:

·         HTML 5 tool based on Flex SDK. (Google GWT like approach)

Html5 as a build target for Flex - so that it will be on par with frameworks like GWT, sproutcore, cappuccino, sencha, openlaszlo…

     Current “spark” flex component’s model separate UI into “skins”. For example – now we have

-          skins for the PC (based on Windows, Mac or Unix)

-          mobile skins intended for mobile devices

So from this point of view new html5 based tool require just skins for html.

·         Based on PhoneGap (Html based development for mobile)

http://phonegap.com

2011-10-03 Adobe bought Nitobi (Creator of PhoneGap) http://blogs.nitobi.com/andre/index.php/2011/10/03/nitobi-enters-into-acquisition-agreement-with-adobe/

·         Based on jQuery or something like it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JQuery

jQuery

http://jquery.com/

jQuery contains the following features:

• DOM element selections using the cross-browser open source selector engine Sizzle, a spin-off out of the jQuery project
• DOM traversal and modification (including support for CSS 1-3)
• Events
• CSS manipulation
• Effects and animations
• Ajax
• Extensibility through plug-ins
• Utilities - such as browser version and the each function.
• Cross-browser support

Does not have

* OOP
* AOP (Aspect-oriented programming)
* Dependency Injection
* Debugger
* Profiler
* Bytearray
* Advanced Protocols: AMF, RTMP, …
* Advanced Video
* UI components set
* Data Visualization Components
…

Google Web Toolkit

GWT based alternative

Ext GWT Internet Application Framework for Google Web Toolkit

http://www.sencha.com/products/extgwt/

PhoneGap

Html based development for mobile

Apache Callback  - open source name for PhoneGap

http://phonegap.com

• iOS
• Android
• Blackberry
• WebOS
• Symbian

2011-10-03 Adobe bought Nitobi (Creator of PhoneGap) http://blogs.nitobi.com/andre/index.php/2011/10/03/nitobi-enters-into-acquisition-agreement-with-adobe/

http://wiki.phonegap.com/w/page/46311152/apache-callback-proposal

http://www.sencha.com/learn/a-sencha-touch-mvc-application-with-phonegap/