Macromedia today announced plans to join the Eclipse Foundation: the company will deliver a next-generation rich Internet application (RIA) development tool based on Eclipse, codenamed "Zorn."

Zorn will provide professional developers with a robust tool set for developing rich Internet applications using the Macromedia Flex framework, says Macromedia.

The Flex server combines the standards-based Flex development framework with a powerful set of runtime services to deliver enterprise-class rich Internet applications. Currently there are more than 300 enterprise customers for Flex, including SAP AG, NEC, and HBOS plc.

Once released, Zorn will enable development teams to easily build and deploy applications that deliver what Macromedia calls "more effective, memorable, and usable experiences" by leveraging the newly-named Macromedia Flash Platform.

"We're excited to be working with the Eclipse Foundation to enrich the industry-wide ecosystem growing around Eclipse. This announcement marks another significant milestone in the evolution of the Flash Platform as the most ubiquitous platform for rich content, applications, and communications," said David Mendels, executive vice president and general manager, Macromedia.

"The success of our platform has been based on providing great tools and building a large developer community. With tools like Flash MX 2004 for rich interactive content, and now Zorn for applications that use the Flex framework, an even broader range of users will be able to harness the Flash Platform to create effective rich Internet applications," Mendels added.

Initially Macromedia is joining the Eclipse Foundation as an Add-In Provider. Other industry members of the Eclipse Foundation include IBM, BEA, SAP, Actuate, Mercury, and Novell.

"Our goal at the Eclipse Foundation has been to foster an open-source community that serves the needs of commercial vendors and brings Eclipse technology to a wide range of users," said Mike Milinkovich, director, Eclipse Foundation. "With its ability to reach a wide range of developers and its considerable expertise in tools development, Macromedia will certainly help further the goals of the Eclipse community."