Do you have the moxie?

Jul 04, 2007

After a brief hiatus I am diving back into Flex and Coldfusion development. With the beta releases of Flex 3 (Moxie), AIR (Apollo) and Coldfusion 8 (Scorpio) this is an absolutely great time to be developing web based applications. Before I go to far I need to show this image of the first thing that came to mind when I heard the codename for Flex 3. My roommate in college loved this stuff, personally I thought it tasted like swill but hey, the name was (and is) cool.

Ok, back to the real story. There has been a lot written lately about RIA's for web, desktop, mobile, you name it. Since the original web explosion in the late 90's much has been promised for what applications on the internet could do, but for the most part I would argue it has been mostly sizzle and a little steak. For developers we have always been asked to deliver cutting edge solutions while being handcuffed by technology limitations. With a lot of pain, frustration and hacking the solutions were delivered but often key functionality and features had to be left out or dumbed down, and much pain and suffering was endured to make it work. With many of the recent technology releases I think those handcuffs are finally starting to come off.

Just a quick look at the ease with which an application can be developed in Flex, integrated to back end systems using remoting and Coldfusion, and then repackaged and rolled out as a desktop application using Apollo should convince most web developers that life certainly has taken a turn for the better. Adobe's technology doesn't make developing cutting edge solutions easier, what it does is allow developers to spend valuable development time working on the wow features, the functionality that puts an application over the top, the robustness that user's expect but often never get.

Time saved from the monotonous minutia of things like cross browser compatibility, server integration, and developing frameworks, features and components that any decent language should include by default can now be properly spent on doing what application developers do, developing applications. I can only imagine how many developer years have been lost cobbling together hacks and solutions for things that should have been hands down easy to do. I know it is all part of the maturation process for technology, it can not be perfect from the start, but man is it nice to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Adobe picked the perfect code name for Flex 3. 'Moxie': skill, know-how, pep, nerve. Will developers have the moxie to run with these great technology tools that have been made available? What applications are waiting around the corner, finally able to see the light of day because of what can now be done? How far can the envelope be pushed? Personally I can not wait to push and be pushed. Bring on the big ideas, the impossible concepts, the wow projects.