Air vs mProjector or others

[SoftCore]

I'm spending too much time deciding what to go for. Check the brief:

Build a desktop application that can handle:

- Copy and delete files
- Create folders
- Write XML files
- Upload and download via FTP
- Cross platform

Considerations:

- I'm not familiar with Flex
- I'm still in AS2
- I've got 1 1/2 month left of the project

= go for mProjector?

Air looks right, but mProjector seems like an easy way out. And requiring the user to install Adobe AIR runtime puts me a bit off. Or should I not worry about that?

Advice anyone? Thanks.

[CyanBlue]

Howdy and Welcome...

First of all, AIR is not a completed project which you are not supposed to create a commercial project out ot... I think 1.5 month is just too short time period to learn AS3 and AIR platform... mProject should be an easy solution...

As for the runtime for the user, I think it will follow a similar step as Flash Player... It simply takes time to get it spread around... That's all...

[SoftCore]

Thanks for that. Feels good to finally make a decision, your comment helped :-)

[tg]

cyanblue is noted around here for making helpful comments.

[media636]

What about Zinc?

[CyanBlue]

What about it??? Generally speaking, Zinc is good one as well... Each product has its own strong/weak points... You will have to try them and see what best suits your need...

[senocular]

Just so you know, you don't need to know Flex to work with AIR. You can create AIR applications using just HTML and even with Flash through the Flash authoring environment using the Flash AIR update (currently available on labs.adobe.com).

Both AIR and alternate projectors have their strengths and weaknesses. What you choose to use could depend on the requirements of your application. Discussions covering this in greater detail are around; you're best bet for finding them is probably google : )

[panel]

Originally Posted by senocular

...You can create AIR applications using just HTML...

There is also Dreamweaver update that allos you to create AIR apps

[SoftCore]

Thanks for the input. I reckon the app will be rewritten to Air at a later stage. As CyanBlue mentions; can't bet on mastering the details of AS3 in time for my deadline.

Building apps in Flash for AIR is the future tho, but perhaps its success will depend on the penetration of runtime for the user. However, I've seen an interesting idea at the mProjector forums: distribute the runtime and Air app in mProjector / Zinc executables to ease the installation. Dunno if it's doable, but sounds interesting.

I followed Sen's advice and had a second Google-look at Zinc vs mProjector. My highly undocumented and non-scientific impression is that mProjector is simpler and slightly more stable than Zinc. Zinc on the other hand offers standard installers and an impressive range of FTP functions (which my project needs). But there's also chatter about Zinc showing a tendency of frequent patches and fixes, plus a less consistent cross-platform API compared to mProjector. Again, this is just a few comments I've picked up, not a solid conclusion. I guess it boils down to personal preference, experience and the specific needs of the project.

[wilbur99]

so no version of AIR can deploy a self contained projector like zinc say?


(need installed runtime)