Sun Microsystems’ Java is the application of choice for many web applets – applications that run on the Internet – from pop-up windows and survey forms to scrolling text and graphics engines. Macromedia, which created the web animation tool Flash, can use Eclipse to encourage java developers to create programs in Flash, greatly broadening the application’s possibilities.
This is the first time Macromedia has wholly appropriated technology not developed in-house.
"This is a big move for us because we've always used our own tools," said Kevin Lynch, Macromedia's chief software architect. The company will join the Eclipse Foundation to develop Zorn, which it describes as a "next-generation rich Internet application development tool."
"Now we're adopting an open-source framework to build [Zorn]” Lynch continued. “It's important for the Flash platform because there's a growing community of developers adopting Eclipse and we would like to enable developers for the Flash platform to take advantage of it."
Zorn will integrate with Flex, the coding component central to Flash’s new status as a development platform.
The developer of programs Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Shockwave, Macromedia’s stock rose recently when Adobe announced plans to acquire and merge with the company.
"There's a huge market designed to extend Eclipse," Burton Group Analyst Peter O'Kelly said. "If you want Flex to be a full competitor, you need to support the mainstream application developers in the tools that they're working with. In the case of the Java developers, that's Eclipse."