Nate on Tech

Well Adobe has finally released Apollo for developer preview, as an Alpha release. I, for one, will be starting to play with desktop apps using this Flex-based ActionScript3 engine ASAP. From a platform standpoint, deploying Apollo applications seems to be similar in structure to desktop Java applications. You need a platform-dependent runtime-library, but on top of that runs your platform-independent applications. Then you package your application as an AIR file (like a JAR or WAR file) and make available for the users/consumers.

Features such as allowing for sometimes-connected data and local storage, a rich UI library, web browser “display object” (meaning it can be manipulated as a movieclip could be), and a very easy to develop in model that separates the UI structure from the code - all mean Apollo will bring about a ton of very cool desktop-connected applications.

Further reading: my Adobe Max notes on Apollo features, Apollo on Slashdot, and Adobe’s wiki entry on Apollo

Well it’s official - I’m an open-source developer now! Not that I’ve left my “real” job - far from it. In my spare time, I’ve been digging through the source code for an Axis & Allies clone game - TripleA. TripleA is built in Java 1.5 (or 5.0 for those of you that enjoy marketing hype) and is pretty fun - it even has multiple other variations on the game using the same set of rules. Here are my two patches so far: Continue Reading »