Macromedia Flex 1.0 Released
Macromedia has released Flex 1.0. Flex is basically a server plugin that allows you to write XML to render flash. Here's the marketing lingo from their product page:
Flex is a presentation server installed on top of a J2EE application server or servlet container, a rich library of user interface components, an XML-based markup language used to declaratively lay out these components, and an object-oriented programming language which handles user interactions with the application. The result is a Rich Internet Application rendered using Flash Player and developed using industry standards and a development paradigm familiar to developers.
The major problem with Flex is its price.
Flex presentation server pricing starts at $12,000 for two CPUs and includes annual maintenance.
Macromedia's take on this seems to be "its an evolutionary step in web application design and development" - so $12K is a small drop in the bucket. Sun claims the same for JSF, but you don't see a hefty price tag on that sucker. What Macromedia doesn't seem to realize is that its important to market to developers. If you can inspire the developers to love your product - it's only natural that it will gain more traction. With a price of 12K and no free trial (CD by mail) - good luck on getting developer support.
Of course, as an independent consultant, I probably have a scewed perspective. Maybe the corporate drones like getting their development platform and tools shoved down their throat.