Flash Backwards and Forwards

After some discussion on the Flex Components Yahoo group today, Matt Chotin publicly confirmed that the next release of Flash Player is committed to solving the existing right to left and bi-direction text issues that currently inhibit the platform.

For the uninitiated, a good portion of the world reads and writes in languages that don't flow from left to right and top to bottom. Further some, Arabic for example, write text right to left but numbers are written left to right. This is an example of the larger problem called bi-direction text.

For applications written primarily for a US or European market this has never posed a huge problem. However, Flash Player promised a platform with expanded reach and enterprise partners picked up this gauntlet and developed the applications. Unfortunately, the expanded reach didn't include real globalization, which quickly steals the wind from its sails.

This announcement is a giant relief. It isn't just that this problem will be solved and that 1/3 of the world's population might now consider Flash Player a viable platform, but it is also an indication that Flash is committed to the enterprise application. It is an indicator that Flash intends to compete on this level. It's an indicator that all of us selling the Flash message are backing the right team.

Thanks Adobe. Now I can start bugging everyone about the release date.

Update on this thread
Emmy Huang posted more detail on Matt's comments.

ML