Adobe AIR Development

[georg22]

Hello,

currently we have contradictory informations about the future of AIR development on the BB10 platform.

On the bright side we see the progress, for example:
- FDT support
- BB10-AIR SDK with native looking controls
- ANE support
- roadmap with FB 4.7 support
so it looks like work is going on and AIR is fully integrated into BB10.

On the dark side:
- no information about AIR 3.4 (they are still "discussing a timeline" since january)
- AIR is excluded from "Built for BlackBerry" program
- AIR is completely invisible in all recent BB JAM conferences (an AIR developer who is interested in BB10 will not recognize that AIR on BB10 does even exist)

So on one hand RIM supports the popular FDT to give new developers their preferred IDE - on the other hand RIM hides AIR. New AIR-developer are not invited (and there a lot of them doing great work on Android and iOS). How does this come together?

From my perspective this is based on a political decision to get rid of AIR sooner or later and the current progresses are only based on an old roadmap created a year ago. This includes, that we will never see AIR 3.4 and AIR will only be updated for bugfixes. I hope i am wrong.

I think i am not the only one who has to make a decision now.

- Throwing my Actionscript skills away and go HTML5 or Cascades? (well Javascript and C++ are painful for me, really. Cascades is totally proprietary, and HTML5 not efficient for the kind of apps i have in mind)

- stay with AIR and targeting BB10 (as a second class citicen, with dark future)

- stay with AIR, leaving RIM and targeting iOS / Android (a lot of competition, but with full support for stage3d, starling etc. No discrimination)

I would like to know what do you think. I would like to read an official statement.
Is RIM still behind AIR or not? RIM, give us a announcement that AIR 3.4 will come for sure. This would help.

I dont expect a statement from RIM, but silence is an answer too.

Thanks.

[lrrm]

if you're able to able to code AS3 it shouldn't be a problem to code JS... it's on the level of AS1...

IMO RIM will turn around and go the same way like android and iOs. They will allow you to install the complete AIR runtime packaged along your game.

[jtegen]

Very frustrating. For many apps, AS3 is the logical approach, because it is simple, robust community, cross platform, fully integrated and collaborative API.

For me, JavaScript is a step backwards. I loved C/C++ back in the day, but it is whole lot of work to do some basic stuff as compared to AS3. QML is similar to MXML (conceptually), but it can only take you so far before you have to drop down to C/C++.

So that leaves Qt, but only available for BB10.

For me, I will only go that route once RIM has shown some market success with BB10. No sense in building NDK/Cascade/Qt apps for a system that will will continue to lose market share.

Come on RIM. AIR is an competitive advantage to the device.

[georg22]

"if you're able to able to code AS3 it shouldn't be a problem to code JS... it's on the level of AS1.."

I know. And thats the problem. I coded AS1 for years, its a huge step back IMO. I tried Cascades and Webworks but with AIR i am extremely happy and productive. I recently made an app based on the AIR BB10 controls. Everything works fine on DevAlpha. Why should i use another tool? With AIR i can create my visual assets in Flash as Vector and Bitmap and export them as SWC and reference them in FB as classes, i can compile extremely fast to the desktop, having mature debugging tools. And codecompletion works best, because AS3 is strongly typed. Its perfect for me.

[lrrm]

I know that

I spent lots of years with AS1. I skipped AS2  and then moved forward to AS3. I still miss some of the easiness of AS1, especially when it comes to scopes, but for structured working AS3 is definitely my first choice.

[spoutnik]

Very good sum up .. and little for me to add here. I have been working on BlackBerry mainly because of the good Air support and because of their approach to build a platform that is open to anyone. .. If that is finished now I will concentrate on Android and iSO. 

HTML5 and JavaScript might be an option at some point in time. But right now it is just a huge pain everything seems still to be moving.

It is a truly disappointing to see how RIM putting us aside like that. But it is a clear sign for me that it is time to move on to other platforms.

[georg22]

Thanks for the comments, unfortunately no official words, again. The communication by RIM is really really bad. I dont need to say that my excitement about BB10 is nearly gone.

Its not easy to make the right decisions when i am controlled by bitter emotions.

I really dont know, why we dont get any information by RIM. Its so easy to say, that BB will continue updating AIR, AIR will be updated in 2013, we support our developers, we invite AIR developer and so on. 

So lets try to think the vulcanian way:

1. When AIR is my productive tool to make Apps for the launch of BB10 and fits perfectly to the type of apps i have in mind, i should not use another tool right now.

2. If BB10 fails in market, i will be a lucky man, because i didnt waste my time by learning Cascades or bbui and can move fast over to Android/iOS.

3. If BB10 succeeds, AIR is still working, but not being updated, i can still use it for some kind of apps and earn some money, but then i will move over to Android/iOS, sooner or later.

4. If BB10 succeeds, and AIR is getting updated i will continue to focus on BlackBerry.

[jtegen]

This is being discussed within RIM.  To help with the conversation, it would be good for those to contact Alec Sanders (VP Developer Relations) with your thoughts.  From all accounts, AIR will continue to be supported.  Will we get the latest runtime, will AIR apps be "BB Certified"?  We can continue to press it.

If you do contact Alec, make a strong argument and respectful.  Emotion is good, but business decisions should never be made on emotion.  You need to demonstrate how AIR is a market advantage and that it brings in more quality developers and will increase marketshare and revenue to RIM (in your own words of course).  Put yourself in his position.  Think what his day-to-day concerns are and let him know that AIR facilitates these efforts.

[Ebscer]

I am starting to think that the "BB Certified" thing is mainly excluding AIR because it does not share the Cascades look and feel (while HTML can get it with bbui.js). I can see why RIM would want to emphasize apps that show a common interface and yet be willing to make exceptions for high quality native ports.

It is probably best to get to the root of the issue, and if you should be asking RIM for anything it should be cascades like UI controls. Although to be honest, I don't think that I would take the time to re-skin my existing apps...

[shawnblais]

Well I've heard off the record from an Adobe Engineer than RIM is actively working on updating their OS to AIR 3.4. You can take that with a grain of salt, but I think you're ok to stick with AIR.

I mean, what's the worst that can happen? With AIR you're always a step away from porting your apps to another platform.