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Date: Sun, 15 Jan 2012 12:11:13 +0530
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Subject: Flex incubation on Apache as Opensource
From: Amit Goel <agoel.khs@gmail.com>
To: flex-dev@incubator.apache.org
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With all due respect to community, it makes me skeptic about what actually
Adobe is donating to Apache, and what/where Apache community is heading
with it. Correct me if I am wrong:

Adobe will be donating the Flex SDK, and not the AVM/playerglobals etc. So
Adobe will continue to own the legacy on Flash and it's heart -
 ActionScript/AVM. I am just thinking past sometime around the period of
Flex3, if this same incubation could have done that time, is there a single
member in the community could even think of developing Flex4 SDK with spark
containers? I believe NO. Spark components are real great and cool than
what Halo provided. So now we are restricted to the SDK alone, and has to
wait and see Adobe releases for AVM/Flash Player etc. If they will come up
with some releases, Apache community is going to consume that and then only
next phase of SDK could be think of. Then how is it an opensource project.
The community is just here to develop some more components on top of the
SDK components - that's it? I guess that is what people around are already
doing it since Flex framework has evolved.

Flex Builder is a great tool, that Adobe is not going to donate anyways. I
understand that is the only business it is getting through Flex, so that is
fine. But why no AVM and other legacy without which community is real lame
with having a restricted scope, in which they are to just maintain the Flex
evolution? That means Adobe just wants to get rid of Flex SDK development,
but still holding the legacy! I know Adobe also provided their SDK team's
support to Apache, and promises to continue support to its Flex customer.
But what I see is that scope available for the community seems to be very
restricted, where there is a huge dependency on its original legacy holder
i.e. Adobe itself.

You see Alex telling
here<http://markmail.org/search/?q=Flex%20modularity%20through%20composition%20and%20interfaces#query:Flex%20modularity%20through%20composition%20and%20interfaces+page:1+mid:c274z4qt3e74ri3b+state:results>,
that a blank interface in AVM consumes around 1K and loads extra 250 bytes
to an SWF! What are the ways we can reduce it? Its absolutely - No Way
around, until Adobe itself comes up with some changes to AVM. So at all and
all, we could think of nothing great with Apache Flex, just a support
maintenance and support system for Flex. Ok we have jira
<https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/FLEX>now hosted with Apache for
Flex, we will continue logging SDKs bug which were initially done on
Adobe's site <http://bugs.adobe.com/flex/>. And YES, Adobe will make some
charity(if at all possible) sometime by fixing some of the bugs logged
there via their SDK team. I am saying that becoz Adobe already was lazy
fixing bugs logged under their banner <http://bugs.adobe.com/flex/>.

It reminds me of Steve Jobs criticizing Adobe which created havoc over
Flash/Flex community. I believe this Apache Flex could only be opensource
when community is free to develop the SDK, own the legacy without any
limitations. With this incubation, I was feeling a fresh air of Flex being
opensourced and other major vendors Apple/Google/MicroSoft will adopt it as
a standard, but this is not going to happen anymore, when its creator
itself is taking its hand back on this.

I am a great supporter of Flex, and want Apache Flex to live long!

-- 
Thanks,
Amit Goel.

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