Adobe Flash Catalyst Alpha Released

Adobe Labs released the Alpha build of Flash Catalyst, previously codenamed “Thermo,” and distributed it at Adobe MAX last week. Flash Catalyst is a new design and development tool that lives halfway in between Photoshop/Illustrator/Fireworks and Flex Builder.

These days most applications are created by two separate teams: design and development. As applications increase in complexity, the number of individuals capable of effectively creating both sides of an application by oneself is rapidly diminishing. Therefore, at some point the designer needs to hand off the comps to a developer to “make work.” This step is a critical, complex and typically expensive part of the software development lifecycle. In fact, some companies devote entire departments to the task to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the translation from design into code.

Flash Catalyst is not intended for designers to create designs directly inside it. Photoshop, Illustrator and Fireworks have much richer design toolsets. Likewise, Flash Catalyst is not intended for developers to create primary application logic inside it. That’s what Flex Builder is for. Rather, Flash Catalyst is a bridge to allow designers to take what are essentially comps and begin to basic interactivity to them, allowing Catalyst to create actual usable MXML behind the scenes. This pushes the handoff point further down the development side and eases the burden on developers to interpret the designers intent.

For simpler projects like basic websites, electronic press kits, rich content ads, online portfolios, the final output of a Flash Catalyst file may have enough functionality and interactivity for the designer to not even need a developer to complete the project. For more complex functionality like applications (whether internet, SaaS, or enterprise) or projects that need back-end server connections, a developer can import the Catalyst project file directly into Flex Builder to finish the job.

To see an early version of Flash Catalyst, when it was still codenamed “Thermo,” check out this three-part video Aral Balkan recorded last year at Adobe MAX in Chicago.

Thermo preview, part 1

Thermo preview, part 2

Thermo preview, part 3

The functionality Flash Catalyst offers may be likened to Microsoft’s Expression Blend, which lives halfway in between Microsoft Expression Design and Visual Studio. While it is still too early to meaningfully compare and contrast Catalyst (still Alpha at this stage) and Blend (second major revision already released), I can still offer my expectation of the differences between the two products’ design-time experiences.

I should note there are a number of comparisons and contrasts that I deliberately avoid in this post.

• This is not about Flash vs. Silverlight. I’ve already covered that topic here.
• This is not about Actionscript vs. C#. Since they’re both ECMAScript languages that comparison is mostly just about the different implementations of the ECMAScript standard. Not very interesting.
• This is not about MXML vs. XAML. Since they’re both XML-based declarative markup structures that comparison is effectively meaningless.
• This is not about Flex Builder vs. Visual Studio. I’m sure you can find plenty of blogs that can pound the whole Eclipse vs Visual Studio argument into the ground for you.
• This is not about Photoshop/Illustrator/Fireworks vs. Expression Design. That comparison is so rediculous it doesn’t even merit discussion.
• This IS about Adobe Flash Catalyst vs. Microsoft Expression Blend. That’s it.

So the bottom line is: which product is better? Well, it’s hard to say definitively. Since the tools are both “integration applications” that exist to more seamlessly connect other major software suites, its almost impossible to evaluate the Catalyst vs. Blend argument without comparing the toolsets they live in between. I guess the only real litmus test is this: put Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, Expression Design, Flex Builder and Visual Studio out of your head and think hypothetically. If both Catalyst and Blend could be used on either platform, which would people choose? Would you rather use Catalyst or Blend to turn a comp into an application? I think we will have to wait until Catalyst is released (or at least Beta) to answer that question fairly.

Adobe has made some big promises here. If Flash Catalyst lives up to them it will be a hit. Guaranteed. I’d even go so far as to suggest that it may be another “game-changer.” If you weren’t one of the lucky ones to get a copy of the Alpha build at Adobe MAX, you can sign up to be notified of when the public Beta is available early next year at http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashcatalyst/.

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