Company also readies Flex framework

Macromedia has a full agenda of improvements planned for its multimedia application development products, including re-architecting its Flash Player technology and readying the upcoming release of the Flex framework. Speaking at the FlashForward & Flash Film Festival event here Thursday, Macromedia Chief Software Architect Kevin Lynch outlined Macromedia’s plans and intentions for 2004 and beyond. He cited Macromedia’s emphasis on “rich client” application development. “It’s about the transition of Web processing from purely being on Web servers to being on your local machine,” Lynch said. Expanded Linux support also is a goal at Macromedia. "What we've been watching is, when will it be time to bring our authoring tools to Linux?" Lynch said. Greater adoption of the company’s Flash Player technology is anticipated on PCs, Lynch said. “In terms of building content, what we’re working on now is how we can extend the ecosystem of Flash a bit to people who don’t currently use the Flash Player in their work,” Lynch said. The company hopes to enable people such as enterprise programmers and architects to use Flash and build applications for the Internet.