On Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 12:56 AM, Sandeep Gupta <sandy....@gmail.com> wrote:
> > however, new features will not be added to the runtimes specifically to > support the Apache project's efforts. > Does this concern people? > Not me. > > This may become one of the biggest bottlenecks in the development of Flex. > Consider this: You cannot enhance the HTML control in Flex unless Adobe > opens up > the WebKit APIs in AIR - and as of now there are none. Stuck up! Ditto when > you consider to enhance HTTP stack, or the handling of media formats, or > addition of more native data structures. > We never expected to get access to AIR runtime APIs, AIR !== Flex. Handling of media formats, native data structures are all ActionScript language features, again not something we will have access to, or quite frankly need access in my opinion. Flex is an AS3 framework built on AS3. They did add specific changes to the language to support Flex but I suspect some of those could have probably been solved by other means. Those that could not have already been solved. I don't really see how this would become any type of bottleneck of any significance. You stress media formats and data structures, these are things the Flash community as a whole has been asking for (language improvements and better audio API for example) and Adobe has stated they intend on improving those as they fall in line with their new vision for the platform, which is gaming and video. Flex will benefit from those feature improvements to the AVM and AS3 APIs. > > I believe till Apache has a say in features or does not move to other > players like Tamarin/HTML5 or one of its own - the future of Flex will only > be support and maintenance - except the addition/improvement of UI > controls. > Some people have expressed interest in exploring targeting JS and there is also Falcon JS on the way, although it is long way away and Adobe can change their mind any time between now and Q4. Being that x-platform is one of the keys to Flex I expect JS target experiments to start ramping up, I know I'm highly interested and have started researching myself. > > A commonly mentioned workaround is to use using Native extensions - but > then why one needs Flex. > Again, Native Extensions are for AIR. AIR !== Flex. > > Sorry if I am being a pessimist here. > I think you're just confused as to what portions fall under who's responsibility. > > Keep Walking, > ~ Sandeep > > >
