Adobe Flexes Mac Development Tools

Adobe Systems joined the Macworld revelry this week by rolling out a Macintosh version of Flex Builder 2, the toolset it released in June for developing rich Web applications.

Flex 2 already runs on various flavors of Windows, Solaris, and Red Hat and SUSE Linux, and the new Mac OS X version is a universal binary that will install on Intel- and PowerPC-based Macintosh computers.

The Flex 2 product line includes an Eclipse-based IDE, a free software development kit and an optional set of data services for enterprise development. The tools can be used to build visual data applications and interfaces, incorporating Adobe's ubiquitous Flash technology.

With this year's Flex 2 release, Adobe slashed the platform's entry price. The Flex Builder 2 IDE carries a retail price of $499. The SDK is free, a move that Adobe hopes will lure more developers to its camp.

The Flex 2 Mac launch comes as Adobe releases version 2.01 of the software, which adds new features like dynamic CSS invocation at runtime and fixes hundreds of minor bugs. The update also brings features for supporting Apollo, a major Adobe project that will introduce a runtime to marry HTML, PDF and Flash. A preview version of Apollo is due shortly, and version 1.0 is slated for release in the first half of this year.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is preparing to cannonball into Adobe's turf with Expression, a new software line aimed at creative design and Web development professionals that gravitate toward Adobe's Dreamweaver and Photoshop products. Version 1.0 of Expression is due out in the second quarter, around the time that Adobe will release a major overhaul of its flagship Creative Suite.