ActionScript - Yes / No Future?

Relatively recently, I had a choice: what to do and how to live on. What to do in terms of some kind of existence and work in general. I decided to approach this issue as seriously as possible, but rather I began to slowly choose the area of ​​my IT activities. There was a huge pile of elections, I don’t want to learn: C-like, Macintosh and their branches, mobile development and all that jazz. But I wanted to choose something that would be:
- global
- current 5-10 years
- claimed in terms of employment
- and of course it was interesting and exciting.

Following the advice of many friends and acquaintances after reading some articles on the Internet, I decided to go to Flash programmers and started working as a game developer for casual games and now I work with ActionScript 3.0.
But after a while and after reading the articles on Habré, I began to doubt that I was going in the right direction. Or rather, if I have a future, like the flash itself. Of course, as in every object of dispute, wars of unprecedented proportions diverge and grow very strongly. And I decided to finally figure out what is happening now with Flash technology and in AS3.0 in particular. Who has become even a little interesting - please under my cozy cat.
I want to discuss the future of the industry. Does it make sense to continue working with Flash / AS? Or move to other, more promising activities?

Experts say that HTML5 is capable of making products that are as complex as Flash or Silverlight. Also, that all of them are at least “morally obsolete”, “it’s time to keep up with the times”.
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Look at the AIR technology.
Very convenient for writing small stationary programs.
Unlike all other interpreted languages, AIR programs easily make their own installers, which are equally well installed under windows and debian. They are registered in the start menu, shortcuts are added to the desktop.
In general, Adobe took care of middleware programmers.

And if you approach from this point of view, then ActionScript will be the only language in which you can write both stationary programs and browser programs, since the closest competitor (java) is still not installed by everyone.

A large number of users and programmers are not satisfied with the work of Fash, because everything there is often slows down and hangs in browsers. Also, their own analogues of library functions do their job more quickly, etc., but everyone continues to use it. Some develop Flash games, others play them. But be that as it may, Flash is evolving.

It is noticeable to everyone that users of mobile devices are becoming more and more and their number is already higher than the number of users of stationary computers. This can not leave anyone indifferent - a large audience is a big perspective, big money. And in this state of affairs, the Adobe policy looks very true - to be everywhere, work faster, maintain everything that is fashionable, so that no one else can say that Flash is bad.

So, what awaits us in the near future.

By right, the main advantage of Flash at the moment is hardware 3D support, with which developers can work using the Molehill API. The wonders of this technology can be viewed now.



Of course, it all looks pretty raw and not finalized, but still this is our old Flash :)

But miracles do not end there, but on the contrary, everything is just beginning. The most important fun began after the latest release of new Adobe buns:

For example, want to play your favorite races? But after all, bad luck - there is no joystick :( But it does not matter! Flash comes to our aid and its ability to use the device, for example, running Android as a fully personalized and wireless steering wheel.
At the same time, the new Flash Player 11 supports all types of devices: steering wheels, pedals, joysticks, etc.


“To be everywhere” - Adobe confirms its slogan quite effectively - just recall the launch of their game on all possible types of devices.

Also, developers are fairly easy to develop multiplayer games. And details about the possibility of implementing the P2P mode can be learned from this presentation.

As you can see, in almost all videos and articles about Molehill, the game MAX Racer is mentioned. This is a game where Adobe is going to show the full power of their latest developments.

Just as you can not remember the latest features of Flash Player 11 and Adobe AIR - accelerated GC, accelerated AS3 with new functionality, support for modern graphic and video formats - H.264, JPG-XR, etc.

And how can you not remember the cool uncles from Alternativa. They are directly related to the latest development of Adobe. It is on their three-dimensional engine that MAX Racer and a bunch of large projects are being made - now they will also be everywhere. That's cool, why not.

And everything is quite affordable, and you can even develop it for Flash Player 11 and Adobe AIR 2.7.

In addition to the Alternativa Platform, there are already other projects - M2D and ND2D - these are 2D engines. Also, Molehill support will be added to the well-known Flixel, but only when the percentage of installations of the new FP11 reaches 90%.

Well, as well as not to mention VK, Facebook and Twitter, in which almost everything is written using this wonderful technology, which in integration with the API gives a very large field of action.

As it turned out, it was a bit early to write off FLash and Adobe from the market today. If their products were a bit cheaper, there could be no competitors. It would be cool, yes. Well, nothing, life will show.