John I believe and hope that all in this mailing list think like you. I think the aim of this project should be to improve it, make it better and fix the problems that Adobe left in the current Flex SDK, not trying to reinvent the wheel. There are plenty of things to improve in Flex SDK, there are a lot of components that weren't updated by Adobe from mx to spark, which could be very useful in web & mobile development.
On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 3:36 PM, John Fletcher <fletch...@gmail.com> wrote: > 2012/2/27 David Arno <da...@davidarno.org> > > > > As the topic of targeting HTML5 has been raised numerous times > > here, I figured it was time to start thinking in detail about how we > might > > do this. > > > > In doing this though, I started to question whether there was any really > > point to it. > > > > > > I think the argument about Linux here has distracted us from the main > point, which I feel is a valid thought: Are we better to invest into > getting Flex to compile to HTML5, or to choose to rely solely on the Flash > environment and invest that effort into simply improving Flex on Flash? > I must admit that I have watched the discussions about targetting HTML5 on > this list and asked myself a number of times "is it worth the effort?", or > rather "is it the right place to invest resources?" > Here are some points I feel are relevant to the question: > > - Adobe is a commercial business, and will support Flash as long as and > only as long as they feel it is in their commercial interests. They seem > to have a history of making sudden changes without fear of the > possibility > of irritating users. > - Targeting HTML5 will require a lot of effort. And changes to the AS3 > language. > - By the time Flex-on-HTML5 (FOH?) is available, equivalent HTML5-only > frameworks such as ZK or GWT will have advanced substantially. > - Developer time on an open source project is not fixed but rather > related to motivation. That is, if some people really believe in FOH, > telling them not to do it will not necessarily cause them to redirect > their > time into improving Flex on Flash. They might just spend that time on > YouTube instead. > > Lastly yet most importantly, I feel that the project should have an aim or > reason. So for those that support FOH, what is the aim or reason? > > - If the aim is to postpone the inevitable death of Flex, then you are > basically arguing that FOH will keep current users interested in Flex for > longer. I think that is true but only in a limited manner, but I stand > willing to be convinced. > - If the aim is to keep Flex alive and active indefinitely, then you > will need to win new users, so you are basically arguing that FOH will > attract new users in competition with HTML5-only frameworks. You need to > take a big step back and put on your "impartiality cap" to try and > evaluate > whether that is in fact the case. > > John. >
