I'd prefer to see Apache Flex voted on by itself, without tying the contribution to Falcon. I suspect there are more than enough people who are willing to have a go atbthisbwithout Falcon.
Let's not strive for a perfect contribution from Adobe, and miss an opportunity for an excellent contribution. Cheers, -g On Dec 20, 2011 9:01 PM, "Raju Bitter" <rajubit...@googlemail.com> wrote: > Alex, > > I have been watching this recording of a session in the Flex Summit a week > ago: > > http://tv.adobe.com/watch/flex-community-summit-december-2011/open-discussion-about-falcon-and-falconjs/ > > Greg DeMichillie, Sr. Director of Product Management, and Danny > Winokur, VP/GM Interactive Business Unit are leading the discussion, > and in that discussion the conclusion seems to be that it makes sense > to contribute the unfinished Falcon compiler work to Apache. Falcon is > the next version of the ActionScript/MXML compiler for Flex, and will > bring performance improvements of 10 x to ActionScript compilation. > > The result of that discussion seems to be that > 1) The community should get access to the Falcon compiler BEFORE it > will be released. > 2) There is enough interest in the community to help Adobe finish the > Falcon ActionScript compiler. > 3) The community might be responsible for finishing the MXML -> > ActionScript compilation unit of Falcon. > > I'll try to reach out to Deepa Subramaniam to see if there has been a > decision made by now on the Falcon topic, but it might be easier for > you to reach out to Greg or Danny directly to see what the status is. > If Falcon would be contributed to Apache before the work has been > finished, that should be included in the proposal. > > Best, > Raju > > 2011/12/21 Alex Harui <aha...@adobe.com>: > > Responses inline: > > > > > > On 12/20/11 12:30 PM, "Raju Bitter" <rajubit...@googlemail.com> wrote: > > > >> Hi Alex, > >> > >> re-reading the proposal, a few other questions came to my mind: > >> > >> 1) Flash Player SDK > >> What are you referring to, when listing the "Adobe Flash Player SDK" > >> under "External Dependencies". The Adobe website says: > >> http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer_sdk/ > >> "Sorry, page not available", and then: > >>> As of October 1, 2007, the Macromedia® Flash® Player 7 SDK will no > >>> longer be available. The migration path for the Flash Player 7 SDK > >>> is Adobe® Flash Lite 3. > >>> The Adobe Flash Lite 3 runtime provides mobile and consumer electronics > >>> device manufacturers the ability to deliver the most engaging mobile > >>> experiences across devices. > >> Does the Flash Player SDK still exist as a product? > > I guess not. The main thing we need is a file called playerglobal.swc > which > > is on the FlashPlayer downloads page. I had seen it referenced as the > Flash > > Player SDK at one time, but it looks like that is no longer true. I will > > double-check and then update the proposal. > >> > >> 2) Action Script Virtual Machine (AVM) > >> In November 2006 Adobe open source the Flash Player Script engine: > >> http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/press/mozilla-2006-11-07.html > >> Is the source code of Tamarin still the current version of the Action > >> Script Virtual Machine in Flash Player 11? If there is a new version of > >> the AVM (2+), will that be contributed to the Apache Software Foundation > >> as well? > >> > >> It doesn't really make sense to only contribute a compiler, if there is > >> no open source implementation of a runtime/scripting engine available, > >> but that might only be my personal view. If the community would decide > >> to create a an open standards based runtime for Flex, would that mean > >> the community would have to start from zero? > > This proposal is about Adobe Flex which is separate from Tamarin. And > > separate from the future of Tamarin. I cannot speak to anything related > to > > Tamarin. > >> > >> 3) Commercial support for Apache Flex > >> Does Adobe plan to offer support for an Apache Flex product? If yes, > >> what kind of support would be planned. I read somewhere that Adobe will > >> not offer any support for Flex 4.6+ to new customers, but I'm not sure, > >> if that's still the current plan. > > Adobe is not currently planning to offer support for Flex released from > > Apache, but that could change. > >> > >> 4) Flash Player > >> Are there any plans to open source a stripped-down version of Flash > >> Player, e.g. the discontinued version of Flash Player for mobile) in the > >> future (similar to the pure open source Flex SDK vs. the commercial > >> SDK)? The Apache community could continue working on a browser-based > >> mobile runtime for Apache Flex, if that was the case. > > This proposal is about Adobe Flex which, while it runs in the Flash > Player, > > is separate from the Flash Player. I cannot speak to any plans related > to > > the Flash Player. > >> > >> I hope I don't sound to skeptical here, but Adobe Flex is quite > >> different from most Apache projects I've been in contact with. It's a > >> powerful compiler with an interesting language, but it looks like the > >> output of the compiler can only be used with Adobe-owned proprietary > >> software at the moment. > > This proposal is about Adobe Flex which in my mind is largely the > > ActionScript source code that forms a framework that enables folks to > easily > > and quickly produce useful applications. The compiler source we are > > donating in this proposal is actually being superceded by a whole new > > compiler code base in a project at Adobe called Falcon that will likely > be > > donated to Apache later. Given that Tamarin is open source and the SWF > file > > format is public, I don't think there is much to stop someone else from > > creating their own SWF player. So while the current reality is that > these > > SWFs only run in Adobe-owned players, I don't think there is a technical > > reason for it. > >> > >> Raju > >> > >>> Hi everyone, > >>> > >>> I would like to propose Flex to be an Apache Incubator project. > >>> > >>> Here's a link to the proposal: > >>> http://wiki.apache.org/incubator/FlexProposal > >>> > >>> Thank you, > >>> > >>> Alex Harui > >>> Flex SDK Team > >>> Adobe Systems, Inc. > >>> http://blogs.adobe.com/aharui > >>> > >>> > >>> --------------------------------------------------------------------- > >>> To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscr...@incubator.apache.org > >>> For additional commands, e-mail: general-h...@incubator.apache.org > >> > >> > >> > >> --------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscr...@incubator.apache.org > >> For additional commands, e-mail: general-h...@incubator.apache.org > >> > > > > -- > > Alex Harui > > Flex SDK Team > > Adobe Systems, Inc. > > http://blogs.adobe.com/aharui > > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > > To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscr...@incubator.apache.org > > For additional commands, e-mail: general-h...@incubator.apache.org > > > > > > -- > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > > Raju Bitter | Software Architect > cell: +49 (0) 176 322 011 96 > fax: +49 (0) 8821 68 69 08 29 > email: rajubit...@googlemail.com > Germany > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscr...@incubator.apache.org > For additional commands, e-mail: general-h...@incubator.apache.org > >