Recently Mike Slinn wrote a post suggesting how Adobe could win the RIA war. War? You mean the whole Flash vs Silverlight thing? It’s not a war - it’s sibling rivalry. The only bloodshed I’ve seen is amongst those comment-stream melees (like this one) that follow controversial blog posts, instigated by the usual suspects. (That’s not an invitation guys).

Contention

My argument is - and, bear with me people - that Adobe and Microsoft are helping each other create us the best possible RIA-scape. They’re also united against a common enemy - the end users’ fear of change. Yes - it’s symbiosis, and it’s beautiful.

Of course, the heavyweights aren’t alone. I haven’t forgotten JavaFx, Curl, Prism, Appcelerator not to mention HTML 5 and even good old DHTML & Ajax. However, I will limit this discussion to Flash and Silverlight, because they’re the two that raise the most bloodlust.

State of play

We all know the two players come from very different backgrounds, one from design, the other from development. Having tried to develop in the Flash authoring tool, and design Windows Forms in .NET, I can attest to the difficulties therein. By entering the rich application space, both parties have tread into the other’s territory, and have diviners (the amalgamation of a developer and a designer - yes some people use both halves of their brain) in their sights.

Chicken or the egg?

The proof is in the pudding, and by pudding I mean tooling. The Expression Blend / Flash Catalyst example happens to be my favourite. Blend is quite a fascinating RIA designing program from Microsoft. They had an advantage in coming to the table later than Adobe, and were able to attack the designer-developer workflow early in their lifecycle. However, they were also at a disadvantage, having to tie in to the .NET behemoth in order to appeal to their huge developer base.

Adobe have now stepped up with Flash Catalyst, a product many a Flex dev was frothing at the mouth for. Now, some could argue that Blend came first and that it’s much more mature than the competitor, and others might retort that Expression Design is a thinly veiled Illustrator clone, but why bother? As an Adobe presenter mentioned last year when queried on Silverlight - competition is healthy. Let’s face it, RIA is still a budding industry. We don’t know what tools we’ll be using in five years - but you can bet that Adobe, Microsoft et al will be the ones shaping them - with our input, of course.

My statistic is bigger than yours

I don’t know about you, but I’m going batty with all these statistics that are bandied about. Honestly, I know there are business concerns regarding the reach of each runtime, but my priorities are elsewhere. Adobe and Microsoft are trying to prove to the development community the validity of their solutions through market penetration. Sorry guys, but the number of downloads you had last month ranks pretty low in my list of interesting facts you could be presenting me with. Talk to me about workflow, efficiency and intuitive processes.

Oh noes! Installs on my Internets!

I’ve heard Adobe talk about ubiquity until the cows come home, and Microsoft counter with their own virtues. Unfortunately however, no matter how good you are, end users will complain about anything that upsets their momentum. This includes even the most trivial AIR downloads and Silverlight installs; we’re here trying to enrich their online experience, and they’re afraid of change. Instead of pandering to their irrational (there, I said it) fears, we need to work together to ensure they can deal with our slight interruptions to their service. Twenty seconds of their time versus weeks of development - it’s a no-brainer.

Holy religious connotations Batman

I’m not sure where it started, but the title “evangelist” started popping up all over the place. I’m no theologian, but I seriously doubt theirs is a calling that fosters ignorance of all but one denomination. How could we possibly consider ourselves good developers if we refuse to give credit where it’s due? Just as physicists want the ultimate universal equation, many developers seem to want the ultimate tool. Unfortunately, we’re more like handymen than scientists, and handymen wouldn’t be very handy if they tried doing their job armed only with a shifter and a couple of screwdrivers (even if it was an awesome shifter).

Denouement

For all the zealots out there, I suggest a course of rapprochement. We are reaping huge rewards from the vigorous competition within in the RIA world at the moment - software development is continually becoming more efficient and intuitive. It’s in everyone’s interests to cast aside their prejudices and embrace their inner egalitarian. Rather than bickering about whose runtime is better, let’s spend the time constructively, learning the merits of each others’ solutions. Armed with this knowledge, we can then demand the best from both Adobe and Microsoft.

Read more from Justin J. Moses.