Adobe open source

Adobe has reopened opensource.adobe.com, which now contains the Adobe Source Libraries, a collection of free C++ code released under the MIT License. Currently this includes Eve, a dialog auto-layout engine, and Adam, which is a supporting modeling engine used for describing constraints and relationships. Foreword quote:

As these libraries are incorporated into Adobe's products they will replace tens of thousands of lines of code with simple and short declarations. The Eve layout engine has already saved Adobe millions of dollars in localization costs.

This supports my long-held belief that almost all of the bloat in Adobe's product line comes from poorly designed application frameworks. I hope they give some thought to efficiency, not only brevity, while designing these new libraries. A cursory glance over the ASL code reveals that it relies heavily on the Boost libraries, which is interesting.

Adobe – never mind open source, how about just making the latest Photoshop SDK (and other SDKs) available for free, so developers can make plugins without paying to be a member of the ASN Developer Program? You used to at least include them on the installation discs, which was reasonable (although a bit inconvenient).

You may think that restricting access to SDKs to those willing to pay for the privilege will keep the quality of plugins high. That's probably true, but by doing so you'll only reach developers already in the business of selling plugins for profit, and that's not where the most innovative and useful plugins are likely to come from.

Companies with product SDKs should try to get those kits out to as many developers as possible; every plugin or application released increases the value of the base product, often in wonderful ways not originally expected. Microsoft realized this early on and it has served them extremely well.

2 March, 2005