Macromedia is offering developers a chance to provide input on new software from its earliest stages with a new website devoted to alpha downloads of ongoing projects. The first available alphas will be Macromedia Flex Builder 2 and Flash Player 8.5.
The aim of the alpha release site is to gather feedback from developers to help shape the direction of new products and technologies as developers test and recommend changes or improvements.
“Macromedia Labs represents an important shift in our development process, and is a great opportunity for developers to participate early in the rapid innovation of new technologies,” said Kevin Lynch, chief software architect, Macromedia.
“We can now involve our customers earlier and more deeply than ever before, while fostering an even stronger community in which developers everywhere can share their vision and expertise.”
The company says that documentation, samples, technical articles, forums, and wiki-type discussion and collaboration help the speed and improve the process of software development.
“There’s much said about the long tail of the market. But for developers it’s the long snout, if you will, the shape of products and technologies before they’re packaged and shipped, that matters,” said Rael Dornfest, chief technology officer, O’Reilly Media, Inc.
“Early access to technology and the development behind a product or technology — like Macromedia is doing with Macromedia Labs — sets up a virtuous circle: developers inform the shape of what they get, products and technologies are vetted and improved sooner, and, of course, developers expedite their learning curves.”
Flex Builder 2, formerly code-named Zorn, is an Eclipse-based environment for developing rich Internet applications and includes the Flex Framework. Macromedia Labs says Flash 8.5 offers faster runtime performance, full runtime error reporting, improved debugging, and ActionScript 3.
