Artemis began as a proof of concept. One day, about 4 weeks ago I was working away in my office at effectiveUI when one of my bosses (although I’m sure he would object to that title), Brook, asked me about the feasibility of an application for a potential client. This is not an odd thing working at effectiveUI since the work we do is on RIAs and cutting edge internet apps. This particular client needed some desktop functionality that we were brainstorming about using Apollo for. That discussion got me thinking about using java to extend the functionality of Apollo.

So, I worked up a quick proof of concept that showed the java system properties in a DataGrid of an Apollo app.

After I showed this prototype to Brook we chatted a bit more about the implications. Brook and I both have java backgrounds and have had some experience with Swing. After gaining exposure to the tools for buidling interfaces that are available with Adobe’s Flex we both knew that going back to something like Swing would be really painful. This led us to the idea of building a framework for java developers that would give them all the benefits of building UIs in Flex and writing their core code in java. Also, to allow Flex developers to have access to the myriad of java libraries that are commercially available as well as libraries available in the open source community.

Enter Tony Hillerson : “Artemis” is born. Tony came up with the name Artemis. For those of you not hip to Greek Mythology, Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo (Wikipedia: Artemis, Apollo). After Tony and I worked out the software design for the Artemis Framework we decided that he would focus on installation / deployment / class loading issues and I would tackle the communication protocols.

Not long after Sean Christman came into the mix. Sean had the idea of making the “wow” demo of Artemis: Controlling a Flash game with a wii remote. So he did:

Sean’s presentation at Apollo Boot Camp definitely wowed audiences and brought the Artemis name to the developer community. Sean is also spear heading the community aspect of Artemis. He came up with the idea to get the developer community involved in Artemis by contributing with Artemis libraries that could be used in the framework.

The Future of Artemis

We’re furiously working on getting the framework out of Alpha and into Beta. In the meantime, very soon you’ll be able to download samples and screencasts that demonstrate what Artemis can do. I’ll be posting announcements of these releases here on my blog.If you’re a developer and would like to get in on Alpha development of Artemis libraries please contact Tony, Sean, or me (adam.flater@effectiveui.com).

Other reading about Artemis:

Ryan Stewart’s blog post on Artemis
Tony’s blog post on Artemis
Athnoy’s blog post on Artemis