CFBuilder + Adobe AIR = More Stuff To Learn

If you already have CFBuilder, you're pretty much ready to go with AIR development. There's nothing extra that you need. Now, the default AIR SDK that ships with CFBuilder is AIR 1.5, but Andy Matthews pointed out that you can point CFBuilder at an AIR 2.0 SDK. Anyway, to create an AIR project in CFBuilder, just File->New->Project-> Type "AIR" and it will filter to "HTML Projects: Adobe AIR Project."

To update the SDK:
Download the AIR 2.0 SDK
and unzip it. Move it to somewhere safe on your computer that you won't randomly delete it for no reason. Then, open CFBuilder, go to Windows -> Preference. Type in "AIR" for the filter text, then select "AIR SDKs" - Click on "Add" - Browse to the directory I just mentioned to keep safe and then type "AIR 2.0 SDK" as the name and hit ok. When you return to the original panel, you'll see "AIR 2.0 SDK" in the list and if you want to make that your default SDK, you should check the box next to it and hit apply.

So, why am I mentioning this? Because if you already have CFBuilder, then you already have Adobe AIR and it's potentially another thing you should be learning if you're not already learning it. After all, you knew that you can create HTML / Javascript AIR apps, right? Right?

Additional (useful) AIR links:

2 and a half month review of Android

This will probably be my last post on my opinion post of the HTC / Verizion Incredible and Google Android. The iOS 4 update has been released. My wife still uses her 3GS and has updated her phone. I hate Apple for waiting for so long on some of the features that made it into the iOS 4 update. Nevermind that I wouldn't have enjoyed it on my 3G phone since Apple made the decision not to enable all the features. I still don't regret getting the Incredible. I enjoy the screen. I enjoy messing around with my phone. The issues I have with the phone aren't related to the hardware of the phone.

The android market is a mess. That's the only major complaint I have with this thing. While Apple's walled garden is closed and such, it's definitely organized and there's a common theme in the pricing of game apps (99 cents). Android market, the prices are all over the place and there's a gazillion apps that look like it was developed by someone for learning purposes and they decided to throw it up onto the market as a free download. There's only so many "todo" apps that we need on the market and all of them follow very strange UI interface / rules. As a parent, I'm finding it harder to find games that the kids will enjoy. I do miss handing over my phone to let them giggle / laugh over the new version of PocketGod. I'm finding that app developers are lazier on the Android OS. Case in point, compare the iPhone facebook application with the Android facebook application (which, is made by the same company btw) and you will see that a little more polish went into the iPhone development.

The other complaint I have is that there is a considerable lag time getting the Froyo update. I now understand why a lot of people opted to get Nexus One even tho I considered it flawed due to a weird screen issue. However, getting a non-google phone means you're stuck waiting for a carrier update whenever they feel like rolling it out. I've been avoiding rooting the phone myself.

Using CFBuilder with Railo

With the release of ColdFusion Builder, you may be thinking that you're excluded from using it with Railo. You're not. The only thing you can not use is any of the RDS tools inside ColdFusion Builder. Railo does not and will not ever have an RDS implementation as it's Adobe proprietary stuff. So, why would you want to use CFBuilder? The code completion, cfml scripting support and even CFBuilder extensions work just fine.

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