By: Michael Boucher

I was thinking the other day during my weekly search for any new developments on both Thermo and Saffron, two products that I know little about due to their seemingly overly secretive nature, they are two technologies that I’m very excited about. Actually, these are THE two technologies that I’m most excited about. There hasn’t been much news on the Thermo front after its showcase at MAX et al. The same goes for Saffron. You can view their pages and blog posts and you’ll find a small sampling of their greatness, but as you run through the comments you’ll notice that the developers involved in both projects don’t reply to questions/comments (Saffron) and when they do they offer very little detail. I guess can appreciate this approach, especially when in early cycles of development. So let me make it clear at this point that I am by no means forming a complaint.

So what makes this approach work so well? What makes the lack of information so appealing? Is it the mystery involved? Is it the curious nature of the human species? Whatever it is, I long for the opportunity to get my hands on both products.

Saffron, aside from being one of the few UML editors that supports Actionscript, has a beautiful interface. This second point on Saffron is where any comments on other UML editors that support Actionscript will fall short. I’ve searched endlessly for different ones and being a visual creature, I hate the way they look and the way most of them work. As for the others, they are a little too rich for my blood (Enterprise Architect). Saffron is gorgeous. It boasts a beautiful interface that generates equally gorgeous charts and diagrams. For the most hardcore developers out there, I know it’s not all in the looks – so call me shallow.

As for Thermo, the video demo, screen shots and the promise of bridging the designer/developer divide has my mouth watering. Even with the divide being between your left brain and right brain, being a devigner, I can see Thermo as a must have tool for many other reasons. Primarily because, in my experience, clients have trouble seeing the bigger picture when it comes to wireframes/mock-ups of RIAs. They can’t see the interaction of the elements, how you get from one screen to the next etc. Thermo will provide a means quickly creating prototypes, complete with interaction and dummy data that clients can interact with, test and put through the ringer. The most important part of this, it can all happen before development starts and things get a little more hairy in terms of interface changes and usability. It’s also exciting to watch the direction Adobe has taken and is taking the Flash Platform. I see only great things to come.

As for the hype machine running on both of these products, great job in generating the want (need), best of luck on the development of these applications and damn you for making my mouth water on a constant basis.

Looking forward to the future!