By chance I came across the "TIBCO General Interface". Coupled with its "AJAX Message Service", at first look it seems to be a credible alternative to likes of "Flex" and "Ext". After digging a bit deeper I realized that overall it is not so. Nevertheless, I feel that it is a step in the right direction and is hence important.
The most prominent reason that I am excited about it as it is a proper IDE based approach towards developing JavaScript based RIAs. However, it seems that TIBCO is interested in making products for specialized clients as opposed to web applications for the general public. That is why it has blatantly decided to support only Firefox 1.5/2 and Internet Explorer 6/7. You cannot hope to get away with that if you are making a product for the public. You can get away with it if the product is for a particular company that can enforce a standard browser all across the organization. I guess they have simply chosen their battlefield, and it is not anywhere near Flex or Ext. On the other side is Adobe's Spry framework making its way via the Dreamweaver. It supports more browsers but has less functionalities, aiming at "public" applications I guess. I feel that RIA application development community needs something akin to this, albeit more comprehensive.
I still feel the Flex has the best potential. Sadly, Adobe Engineers seem to be designing from the lab instead of trying to go to the customer's desk and observing competition. Let's see what "Flex 4" brings. Ext, on the other hand, is moving aggressively in terms of feature enhancement and reliability. A good JavaScript plugin for Eclipse, Idea etc. that focuses on RIA development can move the battle decisively in the favor of Ext. Easier debugging would also help. It has already started using flash charts to neutralize one of the most significant advantages of Flex. Combined with Google's data visualization API, one may as well start questioning the existence of Flex. Flex is falling back and Adobe would do itself a favor by waking up to it and taking the fight back to the competition.
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