Termination of financial support starling and feathers

Thats why I always said over and over and over and over and over again to those kind of stubborn people:

If you love it live it

If you hate it leave it. (and sh*t up)

Facts:

Adobe does not respond to these forums

A new release of AIR comes out every quarter

The Android 64-bit requirement was timely enough

The dead-line of the Android 64-bit requirement is close

Currently AIR does not support 64-bit on Android

Looking back (eg 64-bit iOS), we're likely to see the 64-bit version for Android almost dead-line

Why instead of wasting time discussing the sex of the angels, don't start using the time to study alternative frameworks to at least know they exist and what you can do with it and eventually even decide to move (even if 64-bit AIR for Android sees the light of this days).

I dont like this kind of news and of course, it doesn't sounds good.

Personally we're very happy developing with Air, we reuse 99% of the code between platforms, we've a stable and reliable platform and the perfomance using starling and feathers it's simply perfect for the kind of projects we develop ( business apps ).

We've coworkers using other platforms ( don't want to discuss details in each one ) but they simply can´t deliver the developments as quick as us, and they can't reuse as many code as we reuse, so maintenance costs once the app is in the market are much better with Air.

It's very sad that Adobe doesn´t seem to find a way to monetize this platform or revamp it. Many others try to reach the level where Air is right now and for me Air is still better in many ways. The only simple diference is that Air "is not cool" anymore, and being cool or not it's easily changed with marketing and new ideas.

Air doesn't need great changes, it's very mature and stable, have a good ANE collections for almost everything but needs quicker bug repairs, better marketing and the most important "A COMPANY THAT SUPPORT IT", because the worst sensation for us the developers is that silence from Adobe that happens many times. We simply dont know whats gonna happen.

I dont know the costs of the support that Adobe gives to Starling and Feathers but they're by far the best, most compromised and active community they have.

From this kind of things sometimes emerges good opportunities, perhaps open sourcing Air will be the fresh "AIR" we need.

I meet a lot of good programmers, seniors, who now architect or manager, and the story begins - "I had been working with Flash doing this game for FB or VK, or this app, did this web site, ads, Flex, you know it was a great time", I response - "Yes, this is true and I still do it, it's my secret weapon ", they question - "Really?!".

I suspect there must be a lot of controversy internally in Adobe. Probably Cris Campbell and the small team of AIR developers, must have to fight a lot with the rest of Adobe, which, each and every one are in favor of the decisions of the industry.

Probably that small team is trying to keep AIR afloat but everyone is against them. Hence they remain silent ... They can not absolutely promise anything (they can not even talk).

Anyway almost every time these discussions end up with optimists vs. pessimists eheheh

A statement from Adobe at least would help us saving some typing...

New 32 beta out today:

iOS SDK Upgrade AIR Runtime is now built with iOS 12.1 SDK, which enables AIR developers to use ANEs built with iOS 12.1 APIs without using the – platformSDK switch while packaging with ADT.

Fixed Issues

iOS SDK version warning on submitting air apps to app store (AIR-4198787)

Great job AIR team.

In the meanwhile, Adobe remains silent, the only response I managed to get both from email, tracker, forum was just "We are aware of the issue" with 17days to go. Really mature

So we are still waiting for a response on when AIR will update to iOS 12.1 and when for Android 64bit.

AIR is like a swiss knife. You can do amazing things in no time taht are simply unthinkable in other technologies. Of course it all depends on the project. Pros and cons, but workflow is simply the best. It is very very useful for graphic intensive presentations, complex kiosks with updated content, and marketing apps.

I.e.: at the moment I am working for a client to a high-end iPad app, with content completely updatable from a CMS, and connected via UDP to other applications running on desktop.

I have exported a Mac version ofr the client, who's design team can update static content and XML directly seeing the results on their desktop machines. This is just an example of where AIR is incredibly handy, days of workflow saved.

Another projct was an android custom build frame alarm clock, which turns into a 2 way video chat connected with a TV studio in real time. The studio could open connections remotely at presenters homes around the world, set remotely the best camera settings for network, and connect wideo streams to the broadcast equipment.

All this, guess whatm with an Adnroid AIR app and a Desktop AIR app in studio. Complete dev time: 2 months. Unthinkable with other technologies. And I did explore other options before, but it was just too time consuming and over budget. (check it on Behance)

I can tell you so many, where AIR allowed us to be in time and in budget with confidence.

Then, gaming... try to build a complex multiplayer casino for all devices connected to SFS server with players playing together (On-Line, cross-platform Poker and Roulette - Demo of multiple devices (Mac, Android, iOS) - YouTube ), easily customizable for new languages etc. in game maker... well, if you have money and time you just build 2 native apps... Or use unity, going crazy building the interface.

Cordova, Xamarin, Unity, Game Maker, are great and better than AIR for many things, but there are projects where only AIR can allow a realistic timeframe and budget. If it goes lost it will be a pity.

For multiplatform apps AIR might not be the best option now a day. But its still good for games, heavy in graphics, especially vector graphics, hundreds of vector images, that is rasterizing in real time and it's very well fit into the designer/illustrator workflow with one button export and update, kind of "secured" in the app, and your framework tuned to use it. And of course, you can rewrite the whole app working full-time, not a big deal, clients pay for support, but when you are INDIE game developer spend all your free time working after hours and on weekends, sacrificing time with family to be able to release your dream project - it's hard, and dropping support for AIR, means dropping support for many people who put a lot of effort, believes and personal life in to the tech - it is not a gentlemen action. I see it as very arrogant and selfish, like dropping a "best" child from the family because somebody said that we don't employ him instead of cure and educate the way they need.