I think, I already mentioned that I really like Adobe’s products for creating animations and rich internet applications, which are namely Flash Professional, Flash Builder, Catalyst and Illustrator. What I don’t like is the target platform: The Flash Player. So, after all these debates about Flash, isn’t it time to simply drop the Flash Player and add an additional compiler option for Flash Builder and Flash Professional? Yes, you guessed right. I am talking about HTML5 deployment. Wouldn’t it be great if one could build rich internet applications using technologies like ActionScript3 and MXML, which are both superior to JavaScript and pure HTML, without being forced to target the Flash Player? Flash Professional could simply render into HTML5’s <Canvas> element. It has already been shown, that this is possible. Flash Builder could simply transform the code base into HTML/Ajax, similar to the client-side part of GWT. I know that I might sound a bit childish here but, I’d call this “Ajax Builder” :-D
Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t say: “Replace the Flash compiler option.” – This is important since there are still some things HTML5 can’t handle, like webcam support for example.
=> No Flash, no ChatRoulette.
So, til HTML5 is ready to completely replace Flash, both compiler options must be offered.
Also, the whole Illustrator-Catalyst-FlashBuilder workflow should be kept and optimized for HTML5. Although Catalyst is still in its baby-shoes and has some serious mis-concepts, the basic idea is great. Adobe should keep working on this.
Further, AIR shouldn’t be canceled if Flash gets (ever) dropped. Instead, AIR could be a great way to bring Ajax-based rich internet applications to the desktop (and mobiles).
The benefit is clearly visible: Flash-developers can keep using their knowledge about AS3, MXML and Adobe’s software products, but simply target a Flash-free platform.
In the same time, all this Flash-sucks-no!-Flash-is-great-blahblah would finally come to an end.
Update: Seems like, Adobe heard me :-)
Nice post. But even though this idea is great, in many cases the Flash Player should be targeted when maximum performance is desired.
Also, why Ajax on the desktop? There I see no reason at all, and I’d still prefer the Flash Player. The performance is higher and there are more features. So I don’t see justification for Adobe to produce two variants in AIR export.
For the web, yes!
Still, export to HTML5 makes total sense to me, specially if we could still code in AS (ActionScript Developer here). We could still use the tons of fantastic frameworks and libraries that have been developed in the recent years.
I agree,
HTML5 for that web
Flash/Air for the Desktop !