The way I see it macromedia has designed flex with a lot of standards in mind. The GUI’s are described in an XML-derivative, they are styled with CSS, and they are scripted with ECMAScript (or rather a variation thereof). Flex also integrates very well with javascript using the flash/javascript bridge. The only thing that’s lacking is deep integration of SVG.

Thanks for the informative clarification / correction. Apollo is indeed an interesting technology, which I tend to forget about because none of my work has off-line requirements. As to ActionScript, it is partly the naming that throws me here. If it is ultimately “just JavaScript” why give it a special name? Why not support the standard directly? That is part of what being open is about – not just giving away source, but supporting standards. Adobe appears to me to have this proprietary NIH gene, which they need to shed if they want wider acceptance.

Flex is so 2001, with all the XML and compilers and – just what we really needed – another scripting language!

Have you ever used Flex? Compilers aren’t required if the MXML is compiled (at runtime) by the [ColdFusion = "not free"] server. The scripting language, ActionScript 3.0, aka ECMAScript, aka what Javascript 2.0 is likely to resemble, is not “just another scripting language”, unless you’d choose to write off Javascript as well.

As far as I can tell (and someone jump in here with specific counterexamples, please) there is nothing that we don’t already have with JavaScript and DHTML/CSS

Remember that Apollo is essentially “desktop Flex”. I haven’t seen a DHTML/CSS/JavaScript/YUi/Google/etc. able to live outside of the browser. For certain types of applications, the combination of Apollo/Flex is extremely appealing, and gaining broad industry acceptance (through opening up the technologies involved) is certainly in Adobe’s best interests.

As far as I can tell (and someone jump in here with specific counterexamples, please) there is nothing that we don’t already have with JavaScript and DHTML/CSS, especially with all the great libraries coming out (ex: Prototype).

Flash on the other hand still fills some gaps in the Ajax app stack and is architecture neutral. I hope this is, in fact, an attempt to test the waters prior to open sourcing Flash. Otherwise, unless you’re already a Flex developer, I doubt it will have much impact.

I tried Ajax, but I choose Flex : how can you like Javascript ?? Sure, flex requires skills, but javascript too, right ?

Think about it : Productivity Flex

Sounds like they’re selling 2 things:
- Flexbuilder plugin for Eclipse
- Flex Data Services

I don’t believe they’re going to make that much money with the Eclipse plugin, especially once other competing plugins appear. That means they’re going to make all of their money back by selling the Flex Data Services to large Enterprises. Competing with Java for the backend of Enterprise application development?

But just this week I started working with Flex 2 and I am blown away by the 180 they’ve taken. It feels like real programming now, and very Ajax like in how things flow. The mix of a XML markup and OO scripting is so natural feeling now…

I am really psyched to get further into this and see what can be done. Now with the source opened up, its only bound to get better.

1) Adobe won’t be able to benefit monetarily or compete effectively if tehir product is open-sourced.

WRONG. Adobe will still be able to make money off of selling Flash CS3+, in the same way that Red Hat still makes money off of selling RHEL: they both are paying for both the branding and the service of using the products (not to mention the subscription model).

2) Competitors will be able to take the source code and create their own versions of Flash to compete against Adobe.

Your point? Oracle took Fedora’s source code (creating Unbreakable Linux) in order to compete against Red Hat. And yet, they still haven’t been able to effectively take on Red Hat in the server market like it was often hinted in the past.

Plus, put it under the GPL to keep the bastards honest (and not pull an MSJava).

So again, there’s no reason to NOT open source Flash (and many good reasons to, considering that Microsoft just released Silverlight)

What made the web great in the first place, and continues to do so is this openness. When I can write a greasemonkey script or user stylesheet to remix Flash content then it will be a really great technology, until then it is just another proprietary format, no matter how open the development tools are.