[gopher] Re: progress on the Overbite AIR client

[JumpJet Mailbox <jumpjetinfo@xxxxxxxxx>]

Having worked with Adobe products since the 80's, I can unequivically state 
that if Adobe feels that an OS platform has (in thier opinion) limited 
interest, or a product line of theirs is unlikely to continue to grow; they 
will without hesitation drop support AND EXPANSION of their product line (and 
not think twice about it).
--- On Sun, 2/8/09, Cameron Kaiser <spectre@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

From: Cameron Kaiser <spectre@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [gopher] Re: progress on the Overbite AIR client
To: gopher@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sunday, February 8, 2009, 12:52 PM

> Judging from how unstable and even insecure Adobe's Flash can be on my
> Linux box[1] I wouldn't give much about the creditability of a
> well-known company. Far from it. Whenever possible I don't want to run
> proprietary software with only the binaries released on my system at
> all. IMHO it'd be better to rely on open-sourced, proven and truly
> platform independent technologies like Python, Ruby, Java, you name it.

Well, I won't dispute that, given my own personal distaste for Flash. The
main reason I went with AIR is it's based on Webkit, which I like nearly as
much as Gecko, has good native integration (such as native menus, etc.), and
its API will handle all of the features required for the client (raw socket
access, controls, multiple document interface [with hacking], etc.). If it
makes a difference to you :), the application is pure HTML/JS (well,
ECMAScript, since it uses the ActionScript engine), and is not based on
Flex/Flash.

To be sure, AIR lags badly on Linux, which I hope Adobe rectifies. Being
that AIR is based on existing technology, however, I am confident that there
will be a free alternative runtime since much of the pieces already exist.
Performance is decent on the Windows and Mac systems I have tested on so far.

The other option was Appcelerator Titanium, which does have a number of
advantages and is open-source, but it's considerably less mature (lacking
several critical features such as MDI and a true Socket API), does not have
a stable API, and wouldn't work with 10.4 which is a personal showstopper
(I have a number of systems I browse from which are limited to Tiger for a
variety of reasons).

AIR definitely has its disadvantages, but I found that overall it achieves
most of what I want it to.

-- 
------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ --
  Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser@xxxxxxxxxxxx
-- A different taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections. -- G. Eliot