3.    As an enterprise developer, I value productivity tools that make my work more efficient and pleasant. If I'll be using WebOrb, would I be able to configure my server side components quicker than with LCDS that requires manual modifications of the XML configuration files?

Likewise, I highly value ease-of-use and have high regards for software that makes me a more productive developer. Since we use WebORB on many Professional Services projects, we constantly try to improve the software and make it easier to use. For example, the WebORB deployment model is as simple as the copy command. To publish your Java classes and
make them available to Flex (or Flash, or AJAX) clients, one would just need to copy the JAR files or just the class files into the corresponding folder under WEB-INF\. You do not need to make any configuration changes whatsoever. Flex clients can invoke methods on the deployed Java objects using the standard RemoteObject API:

var ro:RemoteObject = new RemoteObject( "GenericDestination" );
ro.source = "com.foo.HelloWorldService";
ro.helloWorld();

However, if one prefers to configure a destination for a Java class, Spring bean or EJB, then the same configuration process that exists inLCDS would apply with WebORB.

 4.    Microsoft has released Silverlight 1.0 that caters to .Net developers. Why would a .Net developers decide to go with Flex and  WebOrb as opposed to Silverlight?

Please keep in mind that WebORB is client-agnostic platform. We support Flex, Flash and AJAX clients in the same capacity. From our perspective it does not matter what technology the client application uses. In fact, we are working on a library to make WebORB accessible by the Silverlight clients.

 5.    Future versions of Silverlight will run on DLR – Dynamic Language Runtime – that  will allow to create RIA for  Ruby, and Python.   Do you think it'll give SilverLight a serious advantage over Flex?

I am not sure if it would give a serious advantage, but certainly it expands the reach of the Silverlight technology. DLR is flexible enough to run any dynamic language and I predict it will have support for ActionScript soon. As soon as it happens, I can sense some trouble :) By the way, Microsoft announced Silverlight 2.0 and the feature set looks quite impressive. I believe over the next year both Silverlight and Flex will become fairly similar technology offerings (feature-wise). The differentiators will be developer support, tooling and availability of
programming resources. Adobe has much to learn in all of these categories.

 6.    Ruby on Rails seems to be finding its market in small business applications that value rapid development over performance  and scalability.  Marrying RoR with Flex is a win-win situation for both  technologies. Can you please give me a typical profile of a commercial RoR application that uses WebOrb?

RoR holds a very minor fraction of the Flex market. The majority of the commercial applications we have seen mostly run on the .NET and Java backends. Our observation has been that the RoR development with Flex is done mostly by enthusiasts or small businesses that rarely push the
applications all the way to production. As a result, it is rather hard to identify a "typical profile".

  7.    Can you briefly describe an interesting  enterprise application that uses WebOrb in production?

I have plenty of examples for that. We have seen a variety of WebORB deployments in the past year. They range from consumer facing sites to the line of business enterprise applications. One of the examples is the HP PrintStudio available at www.hp.com/printstudio. This is a Flex-based
application that allows online users to design and print a variety of products ranging from business and postcard cards to brochures and letterheads. Another good example is Scrapblog, an exciting Web2.0 company out of Florida. Their website is www.scrapblog.com. Anyone can
sign up for a free account and design interactive scrapbooks (scrapblogs). The Scrapblog builder is a very cool Flex application that lets you put together a cool looking scrapblog, publish it online or share with friends and family. On the business side, we have seen clients doing amazing things with the real-time data push functionality, delivering financial data, news or stock quotes to thousands of concurrent clients.

 8.    Have you tested WebOrb with Flex 3 that is currently in Beta?

Yes, we have and it works like a charm. We have published integration guides for Java and .NET editions of the products. See the links below:

http://www.themidnightcoders.com/weborb/java
http://www.themidnightcoders.com/weborb/dotnet

 9.    What do you think of Adobe Air? Is it a revolution or an evolution? Are you planning to support it?

I'd place AIR into the 'evolution' category in my book. We have seen the line getting blurry between browser-based online applications and desktop-based connected apps. The current reality is we're living in the connected world. It appears 2008 will be the year when most airlines
will support online connectivity in the air (no pun intended). Specific project requirements will call for either for browser-based or desktop-based execution model. From our perspective, we support AIR clients in the same capacity as Flex applications. In fact, we plan to release a special edition of WebORB specifically to address the needs of the AIR clients.


10: Well, it worries me a little that whenever someone talks about AIR, they talk about convenience of being able to work in the disconnected mode in the airplane. I’m really looking forward to some more down to Earth case studies of using AIR in the industry.  And the final question. Is Adobe's release of BlazeDS a good or bad news for Midnight Coders?

 I think it is a good news for us. We certainly would enjoy it more to be the only commercial vendor of a free remoting and messaging engine in the Java space. With Adobe in the game, it will force both technologies strive to be better. Even at this point we have a lot more to offer as functionally we're more aligned against LCDS than BlazeDS and our price point is zero.

BlazeDS should bring more community-based implementation of fast AMF protocol running against various server-side technologies. Midnight Coders have been in this market longer than any other third-party vendor, and I’m sure you’ll be able to maintain your leadership position in the exciting world of Web 2.0 whatever this means. Thank you, Mark!