Flash Develop And Design

Is the Flash IDE turning obsolete?

Posted in Flash by Last ActionScript Hero - Blog on the 09-23-2006

This has been the topic of discussion for a long time now. The open source revolution has caught up in a major way in the Flash community now. Whoever I speak to, speaks about using open source development tools for developing Flash based contents. The Flash community was probably the last to join the open source development race but nevertheless has caught up speed to a great extend (Thanks to Aral for his amazing idea of starting osflash) .

 

When I ask them for that one top reason why they prefer the open source development, almost instantly I hear this answer "The Flash inbuilt compiler sucks !". Very true especially when you are working on a large project, you sit and wait and wait and wait for that blue bar to move on. I think rather than saying "Compiling.." it should say "Why don't you go have a coffee and come back while I compile?" ( May be a good idea for a feature request ;) ) 

 

Jokes apart, this is not the only reason, people have a list of reasons - some say the license is costly (particularly when you have 100's of developers using Flash), we want a automated workflow, we want versionable code (versioning code written inside Flash is a nightmare) etc.., My only question is if this is going to continue and people start using open source software's to develop flash content, at one point of time the Flash IDE may become obsolete or maybe only designers want to use the IDE. The player is already free, the SWF file format is open and now if the revenue that comes out of the Flash IDE also goes down things may take a turn. Adobe has to take a call now and decide on a strategy to retain users of the Flash IDE. My few cents here:

• Make the compiler in Flash as fast or better than MTASC
• Make ActionScript editing in Flash more robust
• Bring in more maturity to the ActionScript programming model. I think Adobe has managed this well to an extend in AS3 but still there is a large room for improvement.
• Create more natively supported code libraries - the only few good ones available now are libraries like AS2LIB.
• Make the build-in UI components light weight and provide multitude of ways to skin them.
• Keep adding more inbuilt components with each release (The last major inclusion was way back)
• Provide workflow related enhancements in the IDE which would have no need for a developer to go out of the IDE for anything.
• Nothing related to the IDE but be sensitive to the users when making major decisions on how the player would behave. To me the biggest mistake which Macromedia has ever done in history was to introduce the Flash Security Sandbox feature (?!!). I don't remember how many times I would have cursed Macromedia for this.
• The list goes on and on but these are the major things which comes to my mind instantly

All said, I am very careful when I recommend my clients for going by a open source approach for four main reasons:

1) It doesn't allow you to future proof your applications. Most of the open source software developers have to wait till Adobe releases the new SWF file format to port their application (and hence leverage the features of the new player) and the wait may be really long for especially the ones which uses the Flash Player.

2) Support is limited to the community or mailing lists. A googling helps most of the times but not always.

3) Doesn't perfectly suit a rapid application development process specifically in the service industry where you need to finish a project with a week or two.

4) Open source development involves a disciplined approach to software development and if you are an a mass recruitment drive you wont be able to find many who will fit this bill.

I have nothing against open source development and infact I prefer the open source approach myself, but as a consultant your role is to give solutions which makes the most sense to the company you are consulting for and not to promote your own ideas or fantasies so to say.

On a different note, someother day a developer made a statement in a conference saying "Adobe's strategy is to make Flex as the de facto for development and let Flash handle the designer features" - sounds really scary. This comment was not made by Adobe but a developer in a conference, but this is the impression which prevails. I think its very important for Adobe to give a clear picture of its roadmap for Flash to the Flash community and what the future holds from a Flash perspective. Expecting every Flash developer to move to Flex is not reasonable and will not work for sure and I don't think this is what Adobe's strategy is.

Thoughts?

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