You might recall a few weeks ago, when I discussed the fact that NetBeans makes it possible to cheat on the Java ecosystem, developing a rich Internet application with Adobe’s AIR rather than Java’s JavaFX. That app was based on PHP, but last Friday Javalobby posted a tutorial that will help you do the same sort of thing using the Java language! The tutorial is about building a hybrid Java-Flex app; the fact that Java works with Flex is not news — in fact, it can be spun as a win for Java, as Adobe wouldn’t want to release their RIA without courting the large Java developer base. (Indeed, since Adobe has no Java-style language that it’s invested in, there’s really no reason why it wouldn’t want to.) But the notion that Java developers are now starting to get to work on picking up Flex skills might make the JavaFX team a mite nervous. So much of trying to build an open systems ecosystem relies essentially on developer laziness — why learn a new RIA platform when JavaFX leverages the Java skills you already have? But laziness will only keep developers on the couch for so long; if Flex is here and JavaFX still in the embryo stage, then they’ll naturally start building a skill set with the former, and JavaFX’s advantage will be out the window before it even arrives. Software Development