Termination of financial support starling and feathers

Report · Jan 23, 2019

Guys, apparently the AIR is no longer an Adobe priority. Tell the developers when you are planning to end AIR support ?

Report · Feb 13, 2019

Because I live on a free country

Report · Feb 13, 2019

hferreira80 wrote
Just because that !
We don't have an answer !

What question are you looking for them to answer? When a 64-bit Android update will be coming? Based on the comments in another topic related to that, they've already responded to users' emails mentioning they're aware of it and working towards a solution. I'd imagine that's all of the communication we'll have on it until they have it finished in a beta, and since the deadline is still a few months away I wouldn't be surprised if that doesn't happen until much closer to the deadline date. Of course a roadmap detailing their timeline would be great, but I wouldn't expect one.

Report · Feb 13, 2019

mrfrasier wrote
but the topic is about getting answers from Adobe and sharing info on updates

actually that's not the topic at all of the original post

it's like a plague, whatever the topic, you will always find few people to hijack the topic to "demand answers"
you will point to them that Adobe already answered but they will continue to argue that "no no no, this is the end of days..."

another group of people will then come and say "oh look how I ditched AIR for something else"

those behaviors are toxic plain and simple

Report · Feb 14, 2019

It's not toxic, it's informative and in the case of this post it's right on topic. Adobe is "removing" and not "adding" when it comes to AIR/Flash so people come here to share what they think and what they do about it, that's simple. Feel free to cover your ears but there are people here that might (should) find all this informative and useful.

Report · Feb 14, 2019

You are more than welcome to stay around and share your knowledge. I also have no problems if you post criticism where it's due and I did not complain the first ten times that Leo posted how great of an alternative Flutter is. But it's really becoming annoying when you have nothing new to say and just in every second post repeat how everything goes down and how we are all blind to accept what you percieve as reality.

Look, I think we are not that far apart even. I think everyone here will agree that more investment from Adobe would be nice, and we all agree that it is probably not happening soon. But where you are sure that Air is doomed within a couple of years, I am sure that it will be good for a couple of years. And after a couple of years? Lets see, we don't know. Not you, not me.

I am just getting tired of reading all your dull posts all over, you have nothing new to add, except Air is lost, Adobe does not update, etc. Yesterday Adobe released the fix for iOS 12.1, none of you have acknowledged that. And of course now you will just point out how Android 64 Bits is not here yet and how Adobe fails to commit to that. Its tiring, thats all.

Report · Feb 14, 2019

Very true. We have SDK 12.1 now.

Also, in yesterday's update, they fixed a nasty iOS bug that I reported less than a month ago.

Basically I can fix my client app before the project is delivered.

I couldn't want more from a development team.

IIt would be more productive to state clearly that we have our CC subscription because of AIR and Animate.

Compiling with Animate is just too convenient.

Report · Feb 14, 2019

This was a happy surprise. I had my team update at least 3 apps yesterday after the update in 12.1 was available. I didn't expect them to make it before the deadline expired.

Let's hope they will also fix the nasty ANRs now, like the Sound disastrous API or input.

Also concerning the commitment fail, we don't have to look forward but in the past. We are still waiting for 2017 Roadmap to complete ( VR/AR, ASTC, METAL bindings for Stage3D, Motion detection for Android device ). A reminder that these weren't asked by devs, these where promised by Adobe.

Report · Feb 14, 2019

I am happy to let you know that the sound ANR / input dispatching timout bug seems to be fixed since 32.0.0.81, based on the statistics we see on our apps and feedback from other developers.

Report · Feb 14, 2019

I don't acknowledge the update with Ios 12.1 and I won't (never do) point out the need to address 64bits on Android for the same reason: Those updates are needed to keep AIR relevant, the day the AIR team is missing that type of update AIR will be dead on the spot. Feel free to applaud them when they just keep AIR relevant by pushing a mandatory update while I just take it for what it is which is just keeping AIR alive for now.

Report · Feb 14, 2019

I am very happy with AIR kept alive.

With this rate of updates, and available commecial ANEs, we have acess to the most versatile and powerful cross-platform solution out there. It's already the best. Keep it relevant on all platforms and I can already do my work at the speed of light.

Ehm, I was investigating flutter for desktop, and someone is happily saying that soon we will be able to test flutter android apps on the desktop! Yeee! And you can also resize them! Wow!

It seemed like watching a video of Flash CS4... how exciting...

We already have the best with AIR (albeit not many know so we are not the cool guys anymore, long gone the time when we were traveling around the world speaking at flash conferences eheh), so keep it alive, updated, fix major bugs, and I am happy.

Report · Feb 13, 2019

rewb0rn nop. Wrong. My preferred SDK is AIR and more specific Flex. I have used it to build a lot of high profile apps (From TEDx Apps to banking) with millions of users around the world.

What I don't enjoy is, Adobe AIR project manager (Chris) saying they will deliver, and then dropping the ball and stopping any kind of communication cause they know they f***ed up. This had me pitching to clients how good AIR is and now I have to answer why we don't update to Android 64 as google suggests in their latest emails.

I am not an AIR funboy to sugarcoat anything. Thus I let other interested devs which technologies I try as alternatives. A lot of AIR devs are looking to move out, and we have to share knowledge.

Flutter is becoming what AIR was in the good days. That's all.

Report · Feb 13, 2019

I'm with Leo Kanel.

Exactly the same.

I'm so tired of the AIR management issues.

For me, I would keep with Flex forever (the best framework ever), but because of AIR issues, I must say goodbye.

That's why I'm (I other folks) so angry.

Flutter seems AIR + Flex on the gold days.

Report · Feb 13, 2019

Yeah some of us are moving away from AIR because of a thing called "reality" but that doesn't mean we do it without regrets. I sure wish things were different, sure wish we had ASNext, sure wish we had a dedicated IDE under dev, I sure wish a lot of thing that just won't ever happen. So that's why people like me are still around those forums, we have knowledge to share, we have opinion to share and we still care a great deal about the tech. The days of AIR are numbered that's really self evident for me and others so we move on technically but we still come here to share what we know/learn.

Report · Feb 13, 2019

Adobe has a history of getting these critical issues fixed right before the deadline -- back in 2015 when iOS had a 64-bit requirement, it wasn't added to AIR until a week or two before the deadline -- so seeing the Android 64-bit requirement getting pushed down the line isn't really surprising.

The iOS 12.1 issue was definitely the priority here, since we'd be unable to submit any iOS apps or updates in a couple weeks, so thanks to the AIR team for taking care of this!

Report · Feb 14, 2019

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...

Report · Feb 14, 2019

This forum live with a few users and ghost statement from Adobe.

They just push a new release every quarter keeping AIR breathing.

This is called "maintenance mode".

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

If that ever happen I will be very surprised !

Report · Feb 14, 2019

I'll stand my my original claim: until and unless Adobe makes a comment, they are being silent for the exact reason that they don't want to be obligated to support it a minute longer than they have to. Please spare me the repeat about how they're working on it... or it'll be around for another 2 years. The only thing that will shut me up about this is a comment from Adobe. There are still employees there right? They can't all be so busy they can't comment here. Do none comment on other forums? FWIW, it really doesn't impact me anymore--as I officially pulled the plug on my existing apps. I still like watching this thread.

Report · Feb 15, 2019

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).

Report · Feb 15, 2019

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?!".

Report · Feb 15, 2019

For me that "Really?!", can means many things.

And most of them are not good!

Report · Feb 18, 2019

I don't count out a comeback. It is possible that a tech re-emerges and goes on to be more successful then ever. It's unlikely, but possible. I seriously would love for this to happen. I have again a job that would cost me 2 days in Adobe AIR, 5 or more days in Canvas/PixiJS/Electron. But if I do it in Air, there is always the danger of someone asking me about what i've used, and flat out lying isn't really an option.

People have no idea how much of a reputation problem it became in the Marketing world to use a tech they perceive as "old/unsupported/unpopular". On the other hand, if you tell them feature X is rather tricky with something like Unity, they say "what ? i've seen that shit years ago" ... if being smug with the client wouldn't be a bad idea in general, I'd love to say "yeah .. that was flash you ignorant <pick your preferred insult>"

If you are not a contractor, things are less tense. Users neither know, nor do they care what their app is developed with. Anywho .. i don't know why i'm coming back to this thread .. i guess i'm still hoping for some miracle to happen .. but i don't even know how it would look like.

Report · Feb 18, 2019

I'll be the first to eat my words if there's anything approaching a comeback. All I can do is share my 25+ years of experience and suggest it's time to hang it up.

Report · Feb 19, 2019

It really depends what kind of app you do but suggesting that WebGL takes twice or more time to develop than AIR is simply false. I'm mostly doing game-like apps for past 2 years with WebGL and output for all platforms with same codebase and dev time is about the same as it would have been in AIR. On the other hand you would be right to say WebGL performance is not up to the challenge with AIR/Flash but that's about it.

Report · Feb 21, 2019

What I said is that it takes me longer. This would probably change if I worked longer on the other platform. Right now i can pull out code from 15+ years of AS3 / Flash development to be super quick. But to say that my estimation is "false" would mean you know me better then I know myself. Maybe my wife could pull that off ... maybe ...

Report · Feb 22, 2019

As you say, it depends on the kind of app. But also of the way of working (workflow).

Nowadays there are two main ways of working according to the ecosystem or framework. 1) Based on textures (Starling, WebGL ...); 2) Based on mixed vectors + bitmap gpu (swf, Flash, as3, OpenFL).

Perhaps the most used is the textures system in almost all frameworks (as3 or javascript). If you compare the development time of a multimedia app (maybe of the kind that you say), using textures in two similar frameworks (Starling for as3, WebGL for canvas / javascript), you may be right (considering a similar experience in both frameworks).

But if you compare a similar multimedia application developed in the second way of working, based on AIR / as3 (GPU mode), the time of the textures system could be from a little higher to much higher. For the simple fact that you always have to take more steps (lack of proper editor - more coding to place elements -, spritesheets, special optimizations, memory, gpu...).

(All this without taking into account that the html5 canvas output costs more time to optimize for slower devices)

We have also been developing javascript in a framework based on html5 canvas for several years and I have come to the conclusion that times are difficult to determine, unless you do exactly the same. The difference is that in Flash / as3, you can do it in more ways than in javascript.