Adobe gives Flash a programming boost

Adobe Systems released on Monday beta versions of three programming projects for producing online applications that run in its Flash Player, software that's widely used but also under competitive threat from other Web technologies.

First is a beta version of Flash Catalyst, a programming tool that's meant for the designer crowd rather than the coding crowd. Catalyst lets designers create a Flash application's user interface in Adobe's Photoshop and Illustrator applications, import the files, attach a variety of actions to user interface elements, then produce the Flash application for production or for handing off to more serious programmers.

Second is the beta of Flash Builder 4, the harder-core programming tool previously called Flex Builder. This tool, based on the Eclipse programming software, employs Adobe's open-source Flex framework for building advanced Flash applications and is for the serious programming set who works in an integrated development environment (IDE). For example, it can be used to link Flash applications with a variety of back-end data sources for advanced features.

Third is the beta of Flex 4 framework that provides underpinnings for Flash applications, including everything from user interface components to animation technology. Flex 4, code-named Gumbo, is an open-source project.

Flash got its start as a way to produce animations on Web sites, leading to gripes that its timeline-based view of the world was alien to programmers. For the animation-oriented set, Adobe still offers its Flash Professional software, but for others, Adobe has the Flex-based approach for producing Flash applications.

Adobe offers a variety of tools in an attempt to appeal to a variety of programming styles. A single project can bounce among different people using the different tools, said Steven Heintz, principal product manager of the Adobe Platform business.

"We've really made all these tools work together," Heintz said. "For pieces of the same project, you can use the tools best for the job. We believe this is better than jamming all this together into one massive tool that's totally inappropriate."

Flash faces a number of challengers. Most directly is Microsoft's Silverlight, version 3 of which is set to be launched July 10. But Google, Yahoo, and browser makers also are advancing what can be done directly in Web browsers without relying on plug-ins such as Flash or Silverlight.

And HTML 5, an still-in-progress revision of the Hypertext Markup Language used to describe Web pages, comes with a variety of features such as the ability to run multiple tasks at the same time and to play video and audio as easily as browsers can display images today, and Google, Apple, Opera, and Firefox developer Mozilla are pushing what can be done with the JavaScript language for programming Web pages.

Adobe argues that it's got consistency on its side with Flash, though. Web users tend to upgrade to the newest Flash player relatively rapidly, and Flash works consistently regardless of which browser it's plugged into or which operating system it's running on. For programmers in the HTML camp, Adobe offers its DreamWeaver development software.

In contrast HTML and JavaScript--including advanced JavaScript applications built with technology called Ajax--varies from browser to browser, said Shafath Syed, a product marketing manager with the Adobe Platform group.

"We've come full circle" in the browser market to the mid-1990s browser wars, with different interpretations of standards and new features and differing support for that technology, Syed said. "That's always a challenge."

Another challenge both camps face is spreading to the increasingly important realm of mobile phones. Flash, for example, doesn't run on Apple's iPhone and is still under development for phones based on Google's Android operating system. Those devices support JavaScript and some HTML 5 features, though, they, of course, lack much of the processing power and memory to make full use of it.

The Adobe programming tools also can be used in the production of applications that run on AIR, the Adobe Integrated Runtime that lets Flash applications run on their own outside a browser.

[Goodbye Helicopter]

Hmm...
no
Adobe never fixes. They only force upgrades to get bug fixes and half baked new features.

[almo-8]

Huh? How is that any different from other vendors? In contrast and with very few exceptions, the Adobe Flash platform has been proven both secure and stable. That said, when Adobe or the open source community finds an issue, are you suggesting that they should not push the updates to the end users? Also, as the article points out--there is a totally smooth and quick mechanism to upgrade to the latest version. There is no real competition to the Adobe platform that offers the same immersive feature list and interactivity, but as visualambrosia points out-- other companies trying to find a niche is going to be healthy for Adobe, to keep them innovating and evolving the platform.

[firefoxluva95]

Where's my 64-bit flash? There's only a Linux version that's 64-bit. I want to move to a 64-bit build of Firefox but I can't because 32-bit flash does not run on any 64-bit browser. Also I am wanting an update to the Nintendo Wii's flash plugin which is still crippled at version 7. And of course Flash on the iPhone but I highly doubt any of these projects are doing to be done any time soon.

[MadLyb]

If Flex is still joined at the hip to JS, then fail.

[cb3431]

Maybe Adobe should work on making Flash secure and stable. Since we are forced to use Flash simply because it has a large install base, it would be nice if it worked well with all the video sites. I can't get through an entire episode on ABC, CBS, NBC, or Hulu without Flash freezing or crashing the browser. This happens with IE and Firefox.

The poor quality of Flash is driving me to get a DVR. I've already dumped Adobe Reader and Flash is close to driving the final nail in its own coffin.

[joelFiser]

Blame the programmer - not the technology.
I dare you to find the Players at Discovery.com (http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/planet-earth-shallow-seas-living-reefs.html) freezing or containing bugs. I know because I made them.
If you know what you're doing, Flash can be written to be fast, responsive, bug-free and of course beautiful.

[visualambrosia]

I'm actually glad that there are now other players in the media/animation/web-app space. This will keep Adobe on their toes and force them to keep innovating. I recently purchased the Adobe CS4 suite and look forward to learning the products fully so I can incorporate them into my tool belt.

I am also very curious to know how HTML5 is going to change this browser plugin playing field.

[rtuinenburg]

HTML 5 looks nice! Microsoft says they will support it, but there has been no sign of it..... Microsoft is afraid of HTML 5 because its a huge leap towards the browser being OS independent. Not dealing, ignoring, stalling, or only using some part of the new standard, is their only defense in this losing battle. Firefox's market share rise is really important here, they are already support HTML 5. When google starts introducing killer apps like WAVE to the world (works with all browsers except IE), IE will start losing more market share because people want to experience these new features. IE will continue to lose marketing share unless they adopt HTML 5. Basically they can't win.. the OS is now rapidly becoming less of a concern.

[twitter_1963]

Why do we keep insisting on trying to make the Browser a Fat Client when we can only do so with poor coding (Web 2.0 / JScript ? Flash/ Silverlight / Gizmo's and Gadgets). Not all apps work in all browsers either so we are screwing it all up all over again.

SInce most Fat Clients developments are more powerful (.NET), easier to support and maintain and can launch on Demand (for Mac and PC), why don't we just admit the failures and go back to a Fat Client architecture now the delivery mechanisms for Fat Clients has been solved. (and we also have Virtualization to run in many different o/s's)...

Seems to me, we are flogging a dead horse here and they (Web Apps) are Fat Clients in Fancy Dress anyway.

[keoz2707]

I agree its equivalent exchange rule (yes like in fullmetal alchemist!! lol) you cant have all the power of desktop apps in browser just because you should give size in exchange thats it so fat clients should be desktop apps lets go back to XAP WPF!! WPF rules!!

[MatthewFabb]

"And HTML 5, an still-in-progress revision of the Hypertext Markup Language used to describe Web pages, comes with a variety of features such as the ability to run multiple tasks at the same time and to play video and audio as easily as browsers can display images today..."

That's only if the computer has the proper video codecs installed and since there's no standard codec mentioned in the HTML5 spec, browsers vendors are going their separate ways on which codecs to include. Which means there will have to be multiple versions of the video, in different codec to deal with the different browsers. Also since there are no way to detect a user's video codex, assumptions will have to be made, which will likely break for users that edit or mask their user agent (often used to detect browsers).

[L0A3W3cw]

Flash in a web page?
Oh yea, now I remember.
Since installing Flashblock in Firefox it's been months since I've seen flash in a web page.

[JerzyR]

Where is Flash for .NET?

[toredefine]

Flash encodes and utilizes GREAT codecs for video. Gotta hand them that. I'm not a huge fan of websites who run solely on Flash. Most of the time they lack the SEO characteristics needed for a proper website, defeating the whole idea of having a site within the universe-sized internet.