[Sigia-l] The Engagement Platform: The future of app design according to Adobe

[Listera]

Dave Heller:

> Flex as the new flash is what troubles me the most.

Hmm, Flex isn't the new Flash.

Flash is the run-time engine for .SWF/.FLV files. Flash-the-IDE, as an app,
is but one way to author .SWF files. You could conceivably author Flash in
Notepad/TextEdit. 

Flex is another approach to generating .SWF files, albeit in a declarative
language paradigm, MXML. The Flex IDE itself changed from a Dreamweaver
add-on to a an Eclipse plug-in. So the Flex-the-IDE, as an app, is just
another way to author .SWF files that the Flash run-time engine can parse
and render.

In that sense, Flex is to Flash what Microsoft Expression Interactive
Designer is to Avalon/WPF. Except, of course, Flash runs in all
browsers/platforms and the latter only on Vista/WinFX.

So technically, Flash and Flex are two different animals.

But, as you point out, where design falls into place in all this is what
should matter to us all. On that point, both Flex and Expression promise
great advances as well as, potentially, great peril.

Both of them simplify the process of laying out complex RIA UIs, and,
specifically, bridge the distance between conceptual design and technical
build. You can *visually* design complex UIs, describe the functionality of
UI controls and bind their behavior to actual data without writing
procedural code. 

That's huge. That's godsend to anyone who makes (functional) prototypes.
That's gigantic for allowing designers (and non-technical people) to
demonstrate their intent without throwing themselves at the mercy of the IT
dept. In that sense, the Spakle notion is one of the most sensible and
exciting things to come out of Microsoft in a long time. As is Flex out of
MM.

What is perilous is the other side of the medallion: just as these make it
easier for designers to create functional prototypes without writing
procedural code, they also make it "easier" for developers to create actual
apps without the help of designers. So we'll see a new wave developers
playing designers, using these tools. Well, stuff happens.

As to the Engagement Platform: Adobe has an existential moment in history.
Can they "unify" print/computer/video/mobile/etc "screens" into one
production/delivery platform? Earlier, PostScript was precisely this
unifier: bridging print/monitor and later video. To a great extent it
succeeded, but in many ways it failed. This is round two for Adobe. As
Chizen says, anywhere there's an LCD (computer, cellphone, living room TV,
etc) this new platform should adapt liquidly.

Anyway, untrouble yourself, Flex is your friend.
 
----
Ziya

"Innovate as a last resort."