Exploring the Adobe Integrated Runtime

Adobe AIR was a major component of what used to be called the Flash Platform. It was one of two runtimes for the platform – and while AIR is certainly more powerful than its sister runtime, Flash Player, it is perhaps even more misunderstood. People generally understand web browsers and their capabilities and uses, but an installable package that runs similar to a native application on desktop and mobile such as AIR is somehow more difficult for the average person to get a handle on.

There is a lot to cover when it comes to AIR. We’ll begin our overview with a look at a general explanation of what AIR is and its relationship to other technologies, such as the ActionScript language. An explanation of the relationship between the two AIR Software Development Kit (SDK) providers will follow as we go over recent partnerships between Adobe and HARMAN (a Samsung company) shortly after this introduction. To wrap things up, we’...