What are you really saying?! – Adobe AIR
Saturday, July 24th, 2010
Today, I read this TechCrunch article, A Case for AIR, and I was all set to write an article about how I have no idea what software buzzword speak really means. For example, the description of Adobe AIR the end of the article: “The Adobe® AIR™ runtime lets developers use proven web technologies to build rich Internet applications that run outside the browser on multiple operating systems.”
Runtime…what is that??? I did a “define: runtime” search with benevolent master Google and got a lot of definitions that didn’t quite fit the context, but one that did. According to Microsoft, the definition of runtime:
An executable engine that directly uses model instances to configure, execute, and manage a model-driven application. A runtime is typically implemented around a class of applications such that a specific application is created by providing the runtime with a specific set of configuration metadata.
A ha! This actually helps me form a better mental picture of what might be involved in using Adobe AIR. Perhaps I develop a web application, then I decide that I want to deploy on a mobile phone or on a desktop. Adobe AIR would then provide me with an API for the applications necessary to run said web application as a desktop or mobile application.
Now that I know that and have visited the official Adobe AIR website, I’m pretty interested in trying this out.
But, I do have a point here: Often, I let the little things I don’t know hold me back from exploring new technologies. I need to stop doing that.
**As I was composing this post, AIR was being throttled by developers in the TC comment thread (so maybe I shouldn’t try it???).