Not the biggest news of the day, perhaps (though I may have something to say on that when we find out what is actually being announced), but I’m a believer that this is a significant announcement nonetheless. Surprising? Not really, since the folks from the Gillmor Gang were hinting at big news this week anyhow. Further, it’s pretty logical.
What’s Macromedia’s problem? Appealing to mainstream (i.e., non-multimedia) developers by a.) speaking their language and b.) plugging into their standard toolsets. How about Eclipse? Well, despite evidence to the contrary, the perception still exists in some quarters that Eclipse is a Java-only platform. Hence the win/win association.
While it’s obviously an important step for both organizations, however, I think the actual importance of the announcement will be for competing platforms. Basically, I think this move signifies the fact that it will be increasingly difficult for ISVs and would-be platform vendors of any shape or size to pursue a standalone tools strategy. As the industry gradually coalesces around a few aggregation points or centers of gravity – e.g. Eclipse – development vendors will have to justify not aligning with a larger framework, rather than vice versa. To be fair, I could have made this argument prior to today’s announcement, but when a platform with the ubiquity of Flash goes this route, it’s clear that the plugin model is the path forward.
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