I also think, that if Adobe keeps the basic control over the Flash/Flex, SWF platform that is a good thing. I believe all of the successful open source projects have a strong central body guiding them. Open source is great for innovation and expanding the capabilities of your system because you invite the collective development talent of the world (at least that part of the world that buys into your platform) to add their ideas to it, but you have to have a central body that keeps the platform from splintering and becoming too fragmented.

I personally think Flex/AIR is the best thing to come along for GUI development since Visual Basic ruled the Windows world. I tried doing a GUI in Java for a project I’ve been working on, in my spare time, and ultimately abandoned it after I found Bruce Eckel’s post about the failures of Java in the GUI realm. Flex/AIR has most of the advantages of Visual Basic (it really needs a better IDE though, I’m developing my application without FlexBuilder due to both cost and my perception of little value added by it). Flex/AIR also has they great ability to communicate with WebServices and use the AMF protocol, that blows away HTTP in terms of speed. I love that data binding is built into the language (and you can bind manually if need be as well). I think Flex/AIR with a Java backend, for larger projects is the killer combination for today’s GUI development.

No I don’t work for Adobe, I just think they have a great platform and have learned from Java’s mistakes in the GUI realm. Also they aren’t trying to replace Java totally, they leave the backed, which Java excels at to Java and take the frontend, which their whole Flex/Flash/AIR platform is built for to themselves.

Can anyone explain why opening the swf format is beneficial/neccesary for the open screen project? i understand the other parts:

1. Publishing the device porting layer APIs for Adobe Flash Player
2. Publishing the Adobe Flash® Cast™ protocol and the AMF protocol for robust data services
3 Removing licensing fees – making next major releases of Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR for devices free

thanx arnoud

> Do you really think companies like Nokia, Samsung and Sony have any problem licensing technology they think will make their handsets more valuable?

They do. If adding this feature costs money, they will be skeptical. Up until now, they have had to pay Adobe a fee per Flash enabled phone. Some weeks ago, Nokia announced that they’ll offer Silverlight on the mobile without paying license costs. While not “short on cash”, they are very sensitive to costs. Europeans switch phones once a year on average…

Fragmentation is something I was worried about as well, but I found that Adobe is no longer afraid of this:
http://www.flashmagazine.com/News/detail/open_screen_project_opens_adobe_even_more/

I see their point - Flash is now so much a standard that if a certain player isn’t up to the task, it will die. The consumers and developers will see to that and do keep in mind that nobody will have an interest in creating their own browser plugin. Adobe already has that one covered and they have distribution like nobody else can ever dream of.

I wouldn’t say that you’re paranoid though. The things you are afraid of may happen, I just think it’s very unlikely.

J

At the end of the day, we have to be confident enough that enough developers feel this way that they won’t support any third-party that aims to fragment the platform. Like you said, no one wants CSS/JS/HTML hell on the Flash Platform.

On the other hand, it raises _many_ opportunities and has _guaranteed_ the survival and growth of the Flash platform past the next decade.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the licensing rates were dropped as a response to Microsoft’s mobile Silverlight initiative.

See, competition == good :)

First, with regard to the usage of the full blown Flash player on mobile devices; it is now possible for many companies to produce their own player. Now, while this might take time and there will be poor versions of Flash player in the running, what it also means is that companies are now able to convert their own players to consume the SWF format. Thus, JavaFX and Silverlight, to name the most obvious, may someday run SWF files without breaking any rules. This is really good news!

Second, with regard to your conspiracy theory, what stopped people building dodgy Flash player hacks in the first place? If I were going to create a version of Flash that allowed me to do something “untoward”, I’d not really care that there was a license saying I wasn’t allowed to do so ;-)

I think the important thing to digest here, is that the development requirements expected from Flash developers is not going to go away, whether or not our compiled works will run on the Flash player, or some other companies player. We also don’t have to specifically wait for Adobe to write a player that runs on our required platform! Heck, if I wanted to, I could mock up some SDL based player that would run some of the SWF format for some obscure machine and not have to worry in the slightest if I’m treading on other peoples toes!!!

Great news indeed ;)

Join the skeptics club! I have been quite underwhelmed by the announcement, partly because I have an in-built aversion to over-excited vapourware press releases. Anybody and their dog is signed up to some ‘alliance’, ‘initiative’, ‘consortium’ or other. Until we see what they are going to do with it, it’s just marketing.

I’ve commented on a few places about the implications for mobile development, and the issue of fragmentation is HUGE in that space. Java on mobiles created more problems than it solved in some people’s minds, BECAUSE every handset manufacturer was able to write and implement their own JVM. Some did it well, others not, but basically they are all different - cue testing on 200+ devices if you want to cater for all users.

The same applies to interactive TV development. Ask anybody developing for the OpenTV platform how many set top boxes they have to do QA on. It’s staggering.

So I totally hear what you are saying about the scary world of lots of Flash Players. I’m not decided on whether this whole thing is good or bad news, but from the experience of other technologies, the old Java catchphrase “write once, run anywhere” just does not work in the real world. And that’s probably OK, just don’t let Adobe or anybody fool you that that new runtime is going to run exactly the same on all devices.

Another less excited mobile business commentator is Michael Mace (http://mobileopportunity.blogspot.com/2008/05/adobe-frees-mobile-flash-its-about-time.html)

Wolf.