Help! Run AIR Applications without Adobe AIR.

[PardeepActionscriptPro]

Hello, I wanted to ask that is there any way to run AIR applications without having Adobe AIR in the computer. It's really annoying when you have to give someone your application to use and then the person needs Adobe AIR to run it. Any suggestions?

[dmennenoh]

Seriously. No, that's a FOL if you are making AIR apps. If you make .NET apps, the user has to have .net runtime. Same for Java, etc. Why would it or should it be different? PS that's a rhetorical question, it cannot be different.

[PardeepActionscriptPro]

Well, other applications like blender or 3DS Max don't use anything. Ok forget that, what about Android, all the applications that I've used in Android till now don't use anything like Temple Run.

[Charles Parcell · Accepted solution]

Where to start...

AIR is a lot like Java in the sense that it requires a run-time engine to be installed. This engine has all "things" required to for the application to run. In a similar way, applications such as 3DMax or Word require that the operating system be present for them to run. Those programs are written using API calls that are present within the target operating system. Likewise, AIR and Java apps are written using API calls that are present within their run-time. To bring it full circle, AIR is an application written in C, that uses APIs for the target operating system. So, when you perform certain functions within AIR, it then knows how to execute needed operating system functions (as needed). AIR also provides a lot of higher level functionality and management that make your life as a programmer a lot simpler.

Looking at iOS or Android, we have the same thing happening. Some developers are writing apps using Objective-C (iOS) or Java (Android) that are using APIs specific to those operating systems. This is the same as writing your app in C like 3DMax.

[Charles Parcell]

I should have added that iOS and Android are a bit different. You can compile a native app on iOS, where as on Android the AIR run-time is separate just as it is on desktops.

[PardeepActionscriptPro]

Thank you Charles Parcell.