Air is Dead

[72Pantera]

Let's face it guys. Air is Dead.  Look at the feature list for 4.0.  The pace of development and bug fixes have slowed to a crawl.

It's presented to us as a mobile development platform but you can't pick a video from the Gallery, read the Contacts database or Play a movie.  The forums are full of bugs and when Adobe rarely chimes in it's to ask us to vote.  Shouldn't you just fix bugs?

It's touted as a cross platform mobile environment but it's not listed in a single article comparing them.  No new developer in his right mind would program in Flash at this point. I did for ten years but I'm done. Tired of spending hours on bugs and workarounds.

I wish Adobe would spin out the two or three guys still working on it and open source it.  Maybe they could call themselves MacroMedia.

[User_Unknow]

Maybe Adobe don't supporting Flash Runtime as this was 2-4 years ago but this is not mean that they don't provide any updates and improvements. My apps works fine. Games of my friends featured by Google Play & Apple AppStore. They don't see any problems with Air.

At this time I don't see anything that showing me dead Air.

[rionero_in_volture]

For the app is there for example angulardart.

I there I played a bit and immediately made me think of Flex!

Why Adobe has not invested on FlexJS?

Now instead use typescript + angularjs that I recommend!

Typescript is really good!

Time out a good framework (if there isn't already) in typescript to webgl and it makes no sense to remain in Starling

for example:

http://gamua.com/area-51/

in the typescript would be very very similar to actionscript

Adobe would have imposed a new framework on javascript if it were more intelligent, in my opinion.

Why could count on many programmers.

However, it is only to speak he!

Now developers have lost faith in Adobe.

Love!

[User_Unknow]

Better write own ABC parser and replicate Flash to JS HTML5 1 : 1 and publish AS3 to JS directly without frameworks

[rionero_in_volture]

I'm not a programmer cool like you! I am a shit, I admit!

[rionero_in_volture]

anyway ...

I've been using FlashCC for an animation (very simple)

It is remarkable its flexibility! Unfortunately it has a code editor wanted

And AIR (flash develop) for an app on android.

I love the order of MXML and actionscript.

To tell you that I really appreciate flash technology! But I'm looking for an alternative (unfortunately) like everybody else.

ciao

[72Pantera]

I just got my Adobe Summit 20124 Invite;

http://summit.adobe.com/na/sessions/at-a-glance/?crosschannel_campaign_management

searched all the sessions and the word Air or Flash is never used. Hundreds of mentions of the Adobe Marketing Cloud.  There is a session entitled:

Hands-on Lab: Building mobile apps with PhoneGap Enterprise

Still, nice to know that Robert Redford and Richard Sherman will be there with music by Vampire Weekend.  Maybe that's where the Flash/Air budget went.

[shawnb81]

I could be mistaken, but I believe Adobe entire "Digital Publishing Suite" uses AIR as it's backend to deliver to devices. And they are pushing that inititive pretty hard.

Someone should tell the Banner Saga guys that AIR is dead, or maybe tell us, cause Bardbarian is doing great.

In the meantime, I'll keep using AIR to pay my mortgage, and put food on my families table.

[User_Unknow]

Here is some Adobe Air games that I know. They are fake. Don't work, dead and can broke device. Don't look on images via your monitors. Go to your foe computer and watch from it becayse it's cracking monitors, jeans and thunder comming after

Iron Force from Chillingo

http://tinyurl.com/qxnvhtu

http://tinyurl.com/nkbwq75

http://www.hikari7.fr/?portfolio=inoqoni-3

http://tinyurl.com/qxlvte3

[furian]

"If Mochi had a more meaningful position today beyond Flash, then there may have been a different path for the company going forward."

Bye bye Mochi..

[TrickeyDee]

72Pantera wrote:

I'm riding the wrong bus.  That's where I got off.

Well would you hurry up and get off then please? The rest of us are waiting to get home!

[Jonathan_at_Idle_Games]

HAHA!!

+100 TrickeyDee.

[72Pantera]

CameraRoll is already in the Air API; I'm just advocating for one that works like both the iOS and Android native camera roll do.  And yes, I've posted to on this forum to that update request and also to the URLLoader bug.  Maybe in five years or so, with enough 'votes' Adobe will fix these one day of coding bugs.  That's the real point here; many things are core and it's up to Adobe -but like Elvis - they've left the building.

Sorry, but I'll not go away any time soon. The impressionable young programmers you fear for need someone who has spent more than a decade coding Flash to be the harbinger and offset the fanboys.  Flash is Dead!

[shawnb81]

Yes cause that's the problem with AIR, way too many "fanboys". What planet are you living on?

At first I thought you were just a good guy with legit concerns, who'd just had his head buried int eh sand for 2 years. Now it's obvious you're just being a prick and trolling the entire community.

Stop feeding the troll, he clearly has no interest in learning anything, doesn't want a conversation, just wants to jump around repeating himself ad naseum.

[cb_bkelley]

Dear Moderator, can you lock down this discussion, it is going nowhere in a hurry and is not contributing anything positive to the commuinty. And frankly I am sick of seeing it at the top of the discussion list.

[TrickeyDee]

2nd

[Massimiliano_Carli_-_temp]

Guys,

I have to say that - after hearing:

• Adobe staff and mvp replies on some critical issues I had the opportunity to read in this forum
• investigating documentation and opinions available on the web
• this "air is dead" thread, with pros (Adobe and mvp participation and authenticity) and cons (facts)
• some other Adobe move I do not like (like their love for HTML5 - not to say I'm disgusted, by the Flash point of view)
• (a small lot of not well working little things found in my development early [re]process: I would need to focus my work on sw development not on bug debug)

after these I got something new for me. Mr semi-troll Pantera make me change one of my most relevant point of view about Flash business model: said with pain, Adobe must make Flash/AIR opensource. (benefits are clear: new life for Flash/AIR - our loved runtime needs to be maintained by an open consortium to not die in the time - and not to risk to flop with customers, said this by our developer view)

This is my change and my request.

Our colleagues saying we can (wait) hop(ing) things goes in the right direction does not have long-term plans, they haven't any business model to mantain in the years. And I don't want to wait e.g. Google to make some more move to kill our Flash marketplace definitively while I'm working with our runtime - and while Adobe Ceo Shantanu Narayen seems able to speak only of "adobe software" (at a first look he does not seem a warrior to me. Flash/AIR need warriors. yo hoo? - with respect: Flash tecnology is now too much for ADB I see). And of course I don't want to fall in malfunctionings which Adobe does not guarantee fixes (I read a lot of this things in the forums. I'm terrified). Like again I don't want my business model  relies on Adobe vague decisons to support or not new important emerging architectures - with devices already on the market! (hoping in community paltry 'new feature' votes instead of Head Quarter plans).

Please make this move everybody: let's report to Adobe what they have to do with Flash runtime if they care of it like us. In this way we are also going to solve most of the pain Adobe guys get everyday and in the short term (.. and Adobe would become a friend not a bad god).

Adobe, make Flash a standard (again). Make it opensource now! Set up a consortium of players.

mc

ps can we set it as a 'new feature' request? I ask for community feedback and Adobe folks approval

[Guest]

I agree with Massimiliano.  This thread has gotten in the weeds but has made me rethink Flash. A forum should encourage. not limit discussion.

I will +1 a Post to open source Flash. It's our only hope to move forward. If this community loves Flash like I do, they should try to save it. Flash/Air is not dead but it will be if we don't act. If not us, then who will?

[Joel_TPE]

There will be changes on iOS and Android almost every couple of months, could community keep up and sync with those changes if open source it (e.g. From iOS6 to iOS7, would you be able to deal with those hardware vendors and get the lastest update info)? What strategic plans you have in your mind if open source it? If you need assurance, this is not the way.

Btw, Flash Player 13 and AIR 13 beta is out now!

http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/air.html

Joel T.

[Massimiliano_Carli_-_temp]

Joel, please don't be silly (FP13).

Of course Adobe will help. They will lead the "Flash/AIR opensource consortium".

And of course they will go on selling Creative Cloud (Flash) subscriptions, Adobe Media Servers and all the rest from ADB software asset (and eventually saving their cross-product flash integration.. and - not least - their company reputation, that is going to be on risk in the near future). It is probably the best way for all.

I know it is a shock. I quote SirIssac.

[Guest]

Joel, Air 13 beta gives testamony to how badly community help is needed. Those release notes are quite thin.

Massimiliano is right. Adobe would continue to lead and collect Creative Cloud $. If the community contributed nothing, they'd be no worse off than now. How could it be a negative?

There are many models for corporate controlled open source: JBoss, Tomcat, Apache, MySQL Database Server.  And closer to home: Starling and Feathers!!

I believe Open Source is the answer. If for no other reason, it's a shot of steroids to an aging system being written off for dead.

[makc3d]

To the people who think OSS is the answer, please take a look at the crossbridge. Not only Adobe does not give it any substantial attention now, but the comunity is not actually able to contribute. More here: https://github.com/adobe-flash/crossbridge/issues/28

[Guest]

Yes, that paints a dire picture of another abandoned Adobe project. Still, I'd say that CrossBridge is not Flash. The amount of developers who will roll up their sleeves is proportional to the number who need it to advance. I make apps, not the Minko library so I've never needed CrossBridge. I'd say less than 1% of Flash developers do.

Two questions:

1. What is the downside of Open Source? 

2. What else would you suggest to rejuvinate the Flash ecosystem?

[makc3d]

It's not like the crossbridge is the only thing OS-ed by Adobe. I don't remember much contributions to mxmlc/asc (and you could argue that more than half of flash developers needed asc before asc2 times). Some people I know tried to submit patches for bugs but were rejected. Then there was this guy who initially wrote fcsh and then left Adobe and sell HFCD, but I bet noone even heared about HFCD. So yes, to answer your 1 - it does not work. You cite Starling and Feathers, but those are in AS3 - the language that community speaks.

Down to number 2, I don't know. I should be either Adobe top manager, or similar product top manager, to suggest something meaningful here.

[Guest]

Part of the problem in looking at the CrossBridge github seems to be poor documentation and project structure. I can only imagine that a system as large and as old as Flash is a can of worms.  I would hate to open source some of my older code.

[shawnb81]

The only realistic option to 'rejuvanate' AIR, is to hope that the corporate executives at the top of Adobe, realize the strategic value of AIR, and take the opportunity to corner the market on general-purpose applications.

I don't see this happening though, as Adobe is not really a tech company, they have no more CTO, and canned or re-assigned all evangalists.

So, who is there left up top who even has a clue about anything technical? Just a bunch of dummies in suits, who think HTML is the future of app development because they read it on TechCrunch.

In Adobe's defence though, Bill is doing a good job, and they have kept their promise of timely iOS updates and are adding some cool new features. So it's not all bad news and they are at least still committing some resources.