Adobe releases open-source interface software

Graphics software giant Adobe Systems has released some components of its commercial products as open-source software, a move intended to help others ease a tedious but important part of programming.

The San Jose, Calif.-based company released two packages, Adam and Eve, that it uses for the creation of the interface people use to control software. The packages were posted last week on the company's Web site.

Adobe said it released Adam and Eve "to give back to the wonderful open-source community which gives us so much" and to enlist the help of others in improving the packages.

The majority of Adobe's products are proprietary, but the company is edging closer to the open-source realm. Its flagship products run only on Windows and the Mac OS today, but in 2004 Adobe started evaluating Linux more seriously. And a beta version of its latest Adobe Reader, a program for viewing Portable Document Format, or PDF, files, runs on Linux.

Adam and Eve are libraries that can be used by other software packages. Eve eases creation of interface elements such as dialog boxes and lets the computer manage their placement on a display. Adam automates how interface elements are modified according to changing circumstances.

"Ask nearly any software engineer what they hate doing most and the answer will be, 'Building the human interface,' and even with Eve, that work is onerous," Adobe said in an overview of the technology. "The code associated with the human interface accounts for nearly one-third of the code necessary to implement a feature within Adobe applications."

Eve first debuted in prototype form in Adobe's Photoshop 5 and now is being updated as Eve2, Adobe said. Adam is being added to several Adobe programs. Both can be used with any operating system.

Adam and Eve are part of a larger software effort called the Adobe Source Libraries, or ASL, underway at the Adobe Software Technology Lab. The ASL software is covered by a liberal open-source license, the MIT License.

In addition, Adobe indicated that it would release software related to the XMP standard, which lets "metadata" describing a file be incorporated directly into that file.

Adobe representatives weren't immediately available for comment.

Unimpressive

This article misstates the availability of
AcrobatReader 7 beta for Linux, which was
available for two-days before being withdrawn.

That aside, one has to wonder what Adobe's
thinking is. The libraries they released are
comparatively primitive UI libraries (compared to
the ones already existing for Linux) and don't
address the cross-platform problem nearly as
well. Moreover, they produce awkward and visually
unappealing and amateurish interface elements.

What's their objective in releasing the source
for these things? There's nothing compelling,
nothing innovative, nothing particularly useful.

Adobe has long had poor public relations with the
open source community. The Dmitry Skylarov case
is a classic example of their contempt for
openness, but to a lesser extent the dismal
efforts with regard to PDF readers and tools
under Linux has been a sore point for some time.
Most understand that though Linux has a larger
user base than Mac, Mac has a larger proportion
devote to publishing -- hence the lack of Linux
apps from Adobe, but Acrobat Reader deserved to
be an exception to that rule (particularly
considering how simple it would have been; the
OSS community themselves came up with a dozen
replacements with the same functionality for lack
of an official product). One has to wonder what
sort of support they are referring to when they
mention it as a reason for giving back to the OSS
community (which has been pretty scathing in the
Skylarov affair and similar matters).

I think the release of these libraries really
sends two messages: 1.) Adobe "doesn't get it",
and 2.) they feel a need to look trendy by doing
something open-source, even if it's a
half-hearted joke.

[System Tyrant]

I liked that.

I liked the points you made. I think the contribution of the code does have some benificial aspects though. At the very least it give you insite as to how adobe programs. I agree that Adobe probably doesn't really get it. Kind of like Microsoft (no offence Adobe, I still like you) just putting out code and calling it Open Source isn't really the same as supporting open source. It is however a start.

I like Adobe. I have found their products to be well built and very functional. They are one of the few companies that I really feel like I am getting my money's worth with. Don't get me wrong the GIMP is good and getting beter, but it's not photoshop.

My only real gripe with Adobe is that they seam to be heading in the wrong direction with their product activations.