Challenging Adobe: Possibilities

Dreamweaver can be a handy website development tool as it can double up as your content management system as well. For PHP websites not looking for too much of RIA, Joomla and Drupal should suffice. For RIA, Joomla and Dreamweaver both can be seriously inadequate. Which brings us back to our friend Flex. As things are at this moment, Flex rules.

Pure JavaScript based RIA can be serious challengers to Flex. However, in absence of an IDE seriously focused on developing RIAs using JavaScript AND manage the content effectively, Flex holds an almost unassailable position. In fact, it seems that by slowly (but steadily) developing Spry and integrating the same with Dreamweaver, Adobe may already be working in that direction. That way Adobe would be ultimately able to hold two winners - whichever way people turn.

Nevertheless, that may not be Adobe's intentions. It certainly doesn't look like the way it is promoting Flex. I think it would make fabulous business sense to make an IDE at par with Flex that exclusively focuses on making an RIA using JavaScript et al. This would not only break Adobe's impending monopoly but may also benefit the developer community in general.