Macromedia under Adobe: My Turn to Comment
Okay, now it’s my turn to comment about Macromedia being acquired by Adobe. The chamber is loaded and here are the bullets:
- First of all, Macromedia tools run on the Microsoft platform. The Microsoft platform is changing into what we now call .NET (“dot net”). There was no indication seen by me that Macromedia intended to update its tools to the new platform. Moreover, this platform is clearly seen more as a competitor than an enabler. Meanwhile I am running Macromedia Studio MX 2004 and its tools integrate with the Windows file system using interfaces from the 1990s, its tools can’t draw windows on the screen properly and its tools generally bump heads with Windows XP. Adobe seems not to have these fundamental problems and can help Macromedia get out of the mud.
- Macromedia can provide Adobe some semblance of a developer community outside of C coders and PDF JavaScript hackers.
- Macromedia Flash will be able to load SVG files as movie clips. This format has a deeper relationship to XML than Flash movie clip files.
So I am looking at tools like NeoSwiff and Xamlon™ Pro for Macromedia® Flash® with unfounded optimism that Adobe people will take these tools seriously. The pitiful hope here is that ActionScript and CFML will not become sacred languages for Adobe (like Java for Sun) and there is an open attitude about the language in use and we will be drawn to Adobe development tools in the same way I am drawn to PhotoShop.