There is really no denying it at this point for anyone who was seriously contending. Flash has the crown and is in no way giving it up.
After seeing what Alchemy can do at the keynote today, P2P multicast video, Durango, and Server-Side ActionScript (!) during Sneaks this evening…
Good God… what an awesome time to be a Flash Platform developer. I’ve seen more than enough in the past two days to validate all that I am doing, professionally. I neglect to even mention Flash Catalyst or Gumbo in all this- that’s just ‘normal’ stuff compared to what is coming down the pipeline.
I asked the JavaFX guy today why I should use his technology over Flash. His only remark was that Java was 13 years old… okay.
An amazing show of Flash over the entire conference and the competition is defenseless. Go Flash!
It’s awesome to see the way they’re extending the platform BUT . . . I do have reservations about the idea of server-side actionscript, because it seems to me it’s about fitting tools to developers, rather than developers learning a variety of tools/languages and knowing what is appropriate to use . . . and I simply can’t think of a good case for choosing ActionScript other than (a) you know it (b) it was the only language the Flash VM supports.
Alchemy is a cool idea though – I can see this common theme emerging across the various platforms at the moment, and that is multi-language support, and compilation of legacy languages onto the VM – i.e. Apple’s work with LLVM similarly allows legacy C-code to be compiled onto a VM, the CLR/DLR on .NET are similarly allowing multiple languages to share one VM, and ditto the JVM.
And if I was looking for one selling point for JavaFX that would be it – with the JVM you can choose to code in Scala, Clojure, jhython, Groovy, jRuby, and a huge number of other languages, as well as Java itself.
So far, the Flash platform is still focused on one language. And it still has to answer some real performance questions on anything except Windows.
Thanks for your comments. I understand that there are a lot of unknowns and issues regarding all this. I am emboldened, however, seeing how far they are extending the platform. It reflects the confidence that Adobe has some clear direction, that they are invested, and they really believe in Flash as a solid platform. That says a lot-especially in something like Flash that has gotten so much flack over the years.
I agree with both of you, and for the whole multi-language support Alchemy really seems to be there answer to that :-) The fact that you can compile all your lovely C/C++ code to AS3 opens so many lovely doors! I mean couldn’t you already embed a python interpreter into C/C++ code? Does that mean you could embed Python code into your C/C++ code then run that python code into a swf? I not entirely sure why you would want to do all that, lol… But still interesting!
The thing I am loving the most about Alchemy is the whole idea of building web based compilers/interpreters so you can test quick snippets of code through the web, I like that idea… And the idea of creating an online emulator to run games perhaps (like this http://codeazur.com.br/stuff/fc64_final/ ), or other things :-)
Adobe is really headed in a great direction with flash, and the fact that is so freakin easy and fun to code in is a really big plus!
It’s my understanding that server-side ActionScript, will be using ColdFusion on the backend for it to work, which in turn runs on Java server. So it looks like server-side ActionScript will simply be an easy and quick way for ActionScript developers to use Java.
I haven’t had a chance to mess around with Alchemy myself, but from what I’ve read this does open the door for Ruby, Python and PHP. However, I’m not sure if Alchemy works with these languages right now, or if more work needs to be done before these languages can be converted into ActionScript Byte Code.
Still the fact that Alchemy was used so that Flash could audio and image files formats that the Flash Player itself does not support is pretty incredible. Even more incredible is that Alchemy was used so that the Flash Player can open and view a PDF file on it’s own without Acrobat Reader.
That said, I think Silverlight will provide some serious competition, but competition is good as it’s pushed Adobe to do things with the Flash Platform that they might not have without it.
i’m freaking out about the whole thing!
And i think they are working really hard… even if only a few of the new toys are a success the vast amount of work they are putting into Flash makes me believe that somthing good is going to come out of all this…
Let’s see where it all goes i’m having a blast!