a.k.a Another Adobe and Macromdia post

So its coming to the end of the day in the UK soon (6:15pmish here now) and i realised that for the first time in ages i hadnt fired up FeedDemon all day WOW - last time that happens. So incase you havent heard there's gonna be a huge merger between Macromedia and Adobe - for more info check out the mini site at www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/invrelations/adobeandmacromedia.html. If you are looking for a more personal touch in finding out what this means you NEED to check out Mike Chamber recent blog entry.

Well i could go on about relative links out there but MXNA and Goog have done that well with all the post stating their concerns.

One big concern i have that doesnt seem to of been addressed that well anywere is the community focus. With the likes of of all the MM staff blogs which are an invaluable resource, there participation on mailing lists right down to MXNA? What will come of this?

David Temkin has announced on his blog that Laszlo is now open source under the Common Public License(CPL). Also announced on the Laszlo Systems site, it states "under an open source license, developers can be reassured that the future of this technology is in their own hands".

The choices for developing an RIA are now slowly opening to the full spectrum of developers. Both this and the Flex announcment will no doubt start shapping the way we see the web sooner rather than later.

As a mini poll though, who, with these new annoucements is already thinking of making jump into the world of Flash style RIA's?

The Bit Bucket Blog is reporting that you can now get a free Flex license. Looking at requirements its the basic non-commercial and non-institutional manner, which in a nutshell seems to be as long as you don't advertise on the site, sell anything from you're pretty much good to go. Check out The Bit Bucket Blog for a brief, but better than mine, explanation of the requirements or go to macromedia.com/software/flex/productinfo/faq/#ancni for all the details.

Well i had to do it, i've ordered the CD and started going through the MM Flex sites and tutorials. As soon as its arrived (8-14 days) expect some posts.

I still don't think the price is right but im lucky enough to be in a corporate enviroment who use Java as well as CF. I know its enterprise software but i've got a freelance friend who loves the idea of Flex (and saw Ben Forta present it in the UK) but with the price tag he knows he's excluded. I still think its a shame, with a lower price tag i think they could of done a lot more damage to the market. Hopefully somekind of light version comes out aswell.

As you've probably seen from all the other blogs, Macromedia[MM] have now opened the applications for beta testing their new product Royale . Like many i went rushing over to submit the form, i hit [submit] and got a Js error saying i haven't completed all the fields, uh, im sure i have??

Anyway after a post and reply from a developer called Reto the problem is that on questions 8,10 you cant have the same answer for both lines. e.g.
Question 8: On your development team, how many developers and designers are there? If you only have 2, a designer and a developer, then you cant tick "1" on both lines. You will need to select 2-5 on the top and 1 on the bottom, or vica-versa.