CNET reports that Macromedia has joined the Eclipse Foundation to create a "next-generation rich Internet application development tool".

Today you can develop Flash RIA applications using several existing plugins. Among the well known plugins are IDE4Laszlo and ASDT . In addition Carlos Rovira has a blog entry that describes how to employ Eclipse to develop Flash Rich Internet Applications. Now with Macromedia joining the foundation, expect to see more robust and integrated tools in the near future.

[update] Macromedia announced its new development platform . Part of this platform is the development tool code-named "Zorn" as indicated by Tim O'Reilly well known publisher and a board member of Macromedia (NASDAQ: MACR). Tim writes :

"Macromedia's announcement that their next generation enterprise Flash development tool, code-named Zorn, will be built on top of Eclipse, is a watershed moment both for Macromedia and for the open source movement. Macromedia's choice of Eclipse speaks volumes about the impact of open source on commercial software development [snip ] A side note that may be of interest: the project lead for Zorn is none other than Mark Anders, one of the two original developers of ASP.Net at Microsoft, and long-time program manager for the product. Mark told me that he joined Macromedia because he felt there was a need for a real enterprise level development tool for Flash. That it was the developer of a key Microsoft product who made the choice to build on Eclipse may be particularly telling."