What is Happening to Flash?
The other day a blog post written by Corban Baxter got the attention of a few of us inside of Adobe. This post voiced concerns about the current and future direction of the Flash authoring tool. I think these concerns are valid and I think many in the Flash community share them. So this post is my attempt at explaining what is happening within Adobe, and how Flash fits into our future. The way I’ll do it is by answering some questions that I hear fairly frequently when I talk to Flash folks.
Is Adobe planning on phasing out the Flash authoring tool?
Absolutely not! The Flash authoring team is hard at work on Flash CS4 and they are adding some amazing new features that will make the Flash community very happy. Trust me on this, Flash is about to change for the better. All of this started with Flash and Adobe is acutely aware of this. Of course there will always be other tools that come along to meet the needs of our ever-expanding community, and often these will grab the headlines, but Flash will not ever take a backseat to any new tool that comes along.
With ActionScript 3, is Adobe trying to focus more on developers?
This is where it gets a bit tricky simply because the Flash community contains such a wide variety of people from different backgrounds and skills. This is what I love about our community. The term devigner has emerged to describe people who are skilled at both design and development and this is exactly the type of person that best flourishes inside of the Flash authoring tool.
The ActionScript language has had to mature in order to allow us to continually push the limits of what’s possible on the web. Learning the new language is not easy and a lot of times it can be somewhat more difficult to do certain things as compared to AS2. But the amazing capabilities and performance of AS3 makes learning the language well worth the effort.
As a side note, I have been trying to focus my tutorials on AS3 as of late to make up for the lack of sufficient training out there. Most Flash classes still teach AS2 so it can be hard to get started. With this being said, you can absolutely still create Flash movies using AS2 as you take the time to transition to the new language.
Will Flash CS4 be focused on designers or developers?
Releases of the Flash authoring tool have always been cyclical when it comes to the target audience. Flash MX 2004 was heavily focused developers with the release of AS2. Flash 8 was focused squarely at the designer crowd and gave us such gems as the bitmap API, runtime filter tools, and a great new video component and codec. Continuing the cycle, Flash CS3 was focused primarily on adding support for AS3 and all that it entails. With this being said, each release has included great features for both designers and developers, regardless of what its main focus was. The way I see it though, is that all these features are geared for devigners, as we work on both sides of the aisle.
Now back to the question. Flash CS4 is clearly aimed at the interactive designer crowd and will contain such things as a completely revamped timeline and a brand new animation engine. All I can say is that auto-keyframing is finally here! Adobe has demoed a lot the new features at conferences such as MAX and FITC so I won’t rehash everything here. But if you are a designer, Flash CS4 will blow your mind.
Will the code editor ever be any better inside of Flash?
All I can say is that if you are holding your breath on this one, please resume breathing normally, as I wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself. This is my biggest gripe with Flash and it has been for a long time. Unfortunately, overhauling the Flash code editor is just not on the roadmap right now. The reasons for this are many. Firstly, the general consensus is that hardcore programmers are using Flex, not Flash. You tell me, is that true? Making these kinds of changes to Flash are also not as easy as you may think. Before coming to Adobe I would say things like “why can’t they just put the Flex editor inside of Flash.” Ha ha, was I ignorant. Things don’t work like that in software development. I don’t want to paint too gloomy a picture here as the editor will get new features when possible, but for those hoping to have something on the level of what is inside of Flex, my response to you for the time being is that you’ll have to use Flex.
Why isn’t there better integration between Flash and Flex?
This is one area where we have really dropped the ball in the past. It often seems like two completely different companies create these tools. Here’s to hoping that things improve soon. Nuff said on this one.
Will there ever be a way for visual designers and video pros to make interactive Flash movies without having to be exposed to ActionScript?
All I can say on this front is that Adobe is very aware that this community exists and that they have been kind of left out of the action in the past. So, yes, there will be a way. Saying what it will be would get me fired so please just be patient on this one. Your day is coming I promise.
Ok that’s it for now. I’ve been writing this on a plane heading to DC and I need to go back to playing Bejeweled. Thanks to Corban for letting us know what’s up.
Lee
Thanks for the vague but comforting info on the direction Flash is taking! Here’s one designer who’s looking forward to the crazy cool stuff Adobe will pack into the next version of Flash!
The only areas I can think of for Adobe to improve on the Flash IDE is…
1) A panel to overview of all packages imported by your app
2) A quickview of all cross package event listeners
3) A panel to overview class functions. Categorized by accessor type, so you see a quick overview of what members a class has
4) Improved application class search. I currently use the Finder (mac) to search for text references within my entire application, because the Flash IDE isn’t smart enough to tell me which classes are importing ‘X’.
5) Improve the symbol linkage panel for faster class connections.
This is the direction I believe the Flash IDE must go in…
I can’t believe people still hold onto AS2…after being tasked with maintaining a site developed by the “top” Flash agencies during sometime around 2003-2004, I quickly found it to be a nightmare. Timeline scripting, MovieClip symbol/Button code, that stuff can quickly become ridiculous. Try navigating through deeply nested symbols, to locate an obscure on (release) function which is on frame 144 and of course has it’s opacity set to 0. I wouldn’t say who the agency was, but trust me they were expensive as hell, and reigning champs for quite awhile; and I can’t imagine it was just an isolated case.
Now compare to AS3, where you have a nice and neat document class, and tidy class packages with names that hint at what they do. Maintenance, and updates are a world of difference with OO AS3.
sorry for the typo’s, I’m trying to get off the computer, been on too long today! = \
I want to put in a vote for “not true” in your statement that the hardcore programmers are using Flex. I know a great number of people who create entertainment sites (not RIAs) and they all prefer to stick with Flash. I frequently hear complaints about the Flash IDE and the users either put up with the quirks, or move to third party tools like Flash Develop.
Enhancements to the IDE would definitely help people with the transition to AS3 and give people who remain with old versions of actionscript a reason to upgrade.
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Great to hear Flash is not being forgotten in the wake of Flex. And I can tell you I know quite a few people that use text editors besides IDE or Flex. I use TextMate myself (I find it much less bloated and non-native feeling as Flex on the Mac — jeez how hard is it to just change the text colors in the Flex editor). However, I would love to see the types of auto-completion features and AS focus of something like FlashDevelop come out of Adobe. Especially considering the great number of Mac using Devigners looking to do real AS3 development on the Mac. Even if it wasn’t intergrated directly to the IDE, but just work in tandem ala FlashDevelop.
Hi Lee,
In your statement that the hardcore programmers are using Flex, let me follow up with this : The best Flash sites in the industry are still made with the Flash IDE not Flex.
Java programmers might be considering building boring finance apps in Flex Builder, the advertising industry on the other hand, the one in charge of creating cutting edge flash sites, cannot afford the 500+k framework and the lack of design and branding freedom given by limited component skinning and MXML.
Yet we switched to Flex…as an alternative. It’s only a code editor we choose to use over Flash Develop or SEPY in order to encourage Adobe, the company responsible for helping us put food on my table for so many years.
Question remains, someone using Flex Builder as a code editor, completely ignoring the framwork, writing AS3 and sparingly using the flash IDE. What’s that guy to do when people ask him “do you use Flex”? What’s he to do when the industry ignores his skills stating that ex Java programmers who build boring finance apps in Flex are the one who will be considered to build the next generation of industry leanding Flash sites.
That’s where we’re at and we’ll never go back to the Flash IDE, no matter how many cool features get added. We’ll just want to code those features in AS3..in Flex Builder of course. And on release day we’ll call it a flash site made by flash developers…. who don’t use flash at all!!
But I totally understand the tricky situation Adobe is in. Good luck.
I also come from the design side, and having spent hours with Flash learning ActionScript really makes me appreciate the direction Adobe took with Flex2 (Free SDK, Labs, etc…).
I don’t agree that ‘ActionScript’ or the ‘Flash platform’ is getting ‘harder’ to use for ‘non-programers’ in fact I’d say it’s getting easier as the time goes by…
I’ve never as much examples, tutorials or tips on Adobe.com or around the web, and honestly even though I hardly use Flash anymore, I think it’s a much more ‘complete’ tool now either for designing or developing, so go on Adobe, do your thing, we’ll follow as usual.
People have been able to learn ActionScript with Flash 4 I don’t see why it would be impossible now with all the balloon tips, and help that is provided with Flash.
Interesting read.
I’d like to second Daniel’s vote above here, for near enough the same reasons. This is nothing to do with the fact it has poor integration with flex, and the fact you have to purchase a whole other application, but it’s useful to graphically see the changes you will apply to an object, and test it easily.
I don’t think Flex is a solution, at least not yet.
Hey Lee!
First off great article.
I´m what you would call a devigner, and I agree with the fact that the Flash IDE code editor can´t be compared to some of the external editors. I´ve moved to FlashDevelop instead. I think this gives me a better overview of my projects and it´s a HUGE difference coding in Flash´s code editor and in FlashDevelop.
I´ve never even looked at Flex, to be honest I´m a bit scared. Flash IDE gives me a comfort, plus that I like the easy way of the designing and putting together the elements inside of flash.
Keep up to good work LEE, I´ve been eating alot of your knowledge so I wanna shout out a big THANK YOU!
@Lee: the big and expensive agencies almost always outsource their work, the actual code being written by some student in India, Romania or Ukraine, while the big agency collects the money without any QA, or even bothering to write some half-decent specs. We’re located in Romania and get to maintain old code ourselves… I still see “eval” being used *shudder*.
I will also join Daniel with a “not true” vote. Not every actionscript programmer is interested in Flex, nor is Flex the right answer for any flash project. It almost looks like Adobe wants Flash IDE to be crappy so that they can sell Flex Builder. I do want a better IDE in Flash and I can’t believe it’s that hard. If one guy could make a great Actionscript editor (I’m thinking about SePy) then I’m sure Adobe can give us a half-decent editor if they want to. I use FDT for Eclipse myself, but it’s still a separate product.
I still use Flash Authoring (IDE) pretty regularly for prototyping, experimenting, etc. Although I am not holding my breath, there is one relatively minor change you could make that would improve the code editor’s usability ten… no twenty-fold. Just make code hinting not be case-sensitive. It makes me want to strangle someone every time it doesn’t give me a code hint just because I didn’t type something with the proper case.
I don’t want to hijack this post as a wish list but need to add that performance should be a linked, key consideration. Personally speaking I would be prepared to use whatever IDE or language so long as I got the performance required. Performance is where Flash is currently looking very jaded. Can someone (Lee?) please explain why we still don’t have hardware acceleration? If fantastic, super smooth bitmaps scalling/panning with great vector performance I think you’d find a lot more people prepared to work with whatever tools so long as the performance was worth it. I dread to think what will happen to Flash if other products offer hardware support and Flash doesn’t.
Hi Lee, thank you for your post, it’s very good that you speak with community, and sorry for my English
“why can’t they just put the Flex editor inside of Flash.”
We don’t ask for a Flex Editor in Flash.
There are two people (only two) developing a wonderful program call FlashDevelop. Is so hard for Adobe Team develop a decent editor for Flash?
I absolutely agree with Daniel. Although we would like (actually need) far better editor features in the Flash CS3 IDE we stick to it because of the better design and coding integration.
If you (Adobe
say that Flash CSx is targeted at devigners then I think you are spot on! But it comes across to me like Adobe at the same time thinks that a devinger is more a designer then a developer which was true a few years ago I think but I know a lot of devigners that need a professional (integrated) tool that serves BOTH the designer as the developer skill in an even professional way. And there is also the group of devigners that is more a coder then designer (as I am).
In other ways the Flash CS4 editor should be given more thought, a lot more in my opinion
(BTW I am not talking about the (‘Actions Frame’ but it’s bit bigger brother)
Maybe you could open the API so that 3rd parties could fill the gap and plug in a FULLY INTEGRATED code editor?
P.S. is the Flash CS4 team looking for beta testers? If so just let me know I would love to test and give feedback particularly about the developers side of the tool.
Very nice to hear, Flash CS4 sound like the tool for me, as I fit into the Devigner category. AS3 was a hurdle yes but a minor one its far better than AS2 and I wont go back. So like you said well worth it.
Thanks for posting LEE.
I also believe that saying “we won’t improve the flash code engine because we don’t want people to use Flash if they know what they are doing” is rediculous. Just improve the Flash coding engine (not necessarily copied out of Flex) and everyone will be happy. In my opinion a good coding engine should not make it harder for beginners, i’m sure you can think of a million features that improve it without making it harder to use; I don’t see Flash automatically finding classes in your global AS directory and giving you hints making it harder for anybody! Surely you can see this – working with Adobe could not make this any less true, do they brainwash you?
Leave out any features that really make it harder for beginners – see how many you come up with!
AAAAAAHHH, now I feel better.
I also believe that AS3 was definitely the right way to go. It is not as if Flash CS3 does not support AS2, and in the end everything is faster, cleaner and more powerful. There just need to be more good video tutorials out there for beginners
1 word – Silverlight
Another vote for Flash instead of Flex here! I have been building flash apps and games for years, and only once did I try to use Flex… I don’t think I will try it again. It’s a bleak and uninspiring tool if you ask me….
Also, using AS2 doesn’t mean that you place all your actionscript randomly around movieclips, timelines and whatnot. Sure this happened in the past, but this has more to do with the lack of standards at that time.
With AS2 you can use exactly the same class-based OOP scripting as in AS3. That being said, isn’t it strange that coding actionscript HAS to be done using third party tools? And couldn’t Adobe at least provide us with free plugins for those tools? Especially on the mac it’s a nightmare!
“All I can say is that if you are holding your breath on this one, please resume breathing normally, as I wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself. This is my biggest gripe with Flash and it has been for a long time. Unfortunately, overhauling the Flash code editor is just not on the roadmap right now. The reasons for this are many. Firstly, the general consensus is that hardcore programmers are using Flex, not Flash. You tell me, is that true? Making these kinds of changes to Flash are also not as easy as you may think.”
I don’t understand why Adobe would even think about overhauling the code editor in Flash. Any serious Flash coder has been using external coding tools for years.
It seems the perfect solution would be for Adobe to distribute an Eclipse plugin with Flash that enabled people to create AS 3.0 projects (i.e. no MXML or Flex), which they obviously already have. Not supplying this, is forcing people who only want to use Flash and pay good money for it to use other 3rd party tools for coding (i.e. Flash isn’t a complete product).
Lee,
At the Academy of Art in S.F., I switched over to AS 3 last semester. I actually found it somewhat easier to teach because of the overall consistent approach. Although I punted on teaching document classes and OOP, which is actually the right choice in review.
I think the problem with so many books is they think for beginners to understand, for loops, you have to get encapsulation, patterns and agile development too. I’m finding learning works best when you get digestable chunks not the whole bloody mammoth to eat.
I used flash IDE since version 5 and I loved the ability to combine visuals with code in a single development environment.
When AS3 came out I started learning it on Flex 2 IDE as it was the only platform available for AS3 at that time. Flex 2 code editor for Actionscript 3 quickly became a standard for me, I could not ever look back. This was the main reason for disappointment when Flash CS3 IDE came out – the lack of good code completion / debugging features made me not to open Flash CS3 ever again.
Now I use Flex 3 IDE for my Flash (not MXML) development and hoping that one day I will be able to switch back to Flash IDE and use some of great the new visual tools there.
For the Flash CS4 I hope to see the following:
- Revamped code tools with better code completion
- Flex like code debugger
- No more “cheating” around AS3 syntax
- More tool customization / extension options
And I wish the best to Adobe getting the tool done right! Thanks for listening
I think the the two tools (Flash and Flex) exist on two different levels. in other words, if I am to make an application, I would jump on Flex, on the other hand, if I was to make a website, I would lean more towards Flash.
I guess it’s relative. To be totally honest, I started off using Flex as an Actionscript editor myself after light was shed as to what it can do. As i used it more and more, I was intrigued as to the capabilities of it and MXML and now see why a statement like “hardcore programmers are using Flex”.
Good info! I agree that my biggest frustration has been with the code editor over the years. I had switched to SE|PY which I loved but no AS3 support. I have now decided to switch over to FlexBuilder and truthfully I’m really digging it. I consider myself in the Devigner crowd (a designer who can code), but I’m getting more and more comfortable in FlexBuilder everyday. But your right the integration and hoops you have to jump through to create pure AS3 code that can be used in Flash or Flex is absolutely horrid. They both compile to the same format (swf) why cant they use the same code libraries?? That baffles me to no end. Over ANYTHING else a seamless integration between the two products would make life in the Flash world soooo much nicer. Here’s hoping ‘08 brings about some welcomed changes.
Oh and can we PLEASE get the installer for CS4 changed back to InstallShield or something else. The installer for CS3 was the worst software implementation I have ever seen. How one makes a great set of products yet manages to completely blunder the install process is amazing. Love the products, hate the installer.
“why can’t they just put the Flex editor inside of Flash.”
Right idea, but wrong direction. The Flash IDE blows for writing code, and I would argue that the focus shouldn’t be to improve its code writing anyways. Everyone is saying that all the biggest Flash experience sites in the world are being built in the Flash IDE. That may be so, but only because the integration between Flash and Flex blows.
You can find a ton of tutorials trying to make it easier to work with Flash projects in flex, the tutorials on Bigspaceship, Tink, and even your blog. Using Actionscript projects in Flex and loading SWFs at runtime. Overwriting classes at runtime. Using the FLA document class as the root class in a Flex project. Its all just work-arounds. The bottom line is that the integration just isn’t there. Its not a lack of functionality in the Flash IDE either, its Flex that needs the functionality. Flex needs the ability to read Fla files on some level. To see named MovieClips in FLA files, to change their names, to change their paths, etc. Flex shouldn’t be able to change these assets, thats the job of the Flash IDE. However, Flex needs to be able to read them, and hook into the FLA, and compile it. Adding previews of the FLA-based project would help too.
Another vote with Daniel.
I’ve worked on Flex boring project for half year already. What I know Flex is more welcome to ex-Java developers but not friendly to Flash developers. Flex actually a high-level language development environment, rely on (or limited by) framework and design patterns totally(and bugs), while Flash IDE if you code totally with AS3, it’s much similar a low-level of C, you have all controls, freedom and performance improvements to code in your own way, whatever a hardcore programmer or devigner.
Flex is much a SWF IDE to cut off budgets for managers, but never can be as good as coding in Flash IDE for real hardcore programmer who know Flash deeper.
Personally, I am sick of using Flash IDE timeline when it comes to keyframed animation. Being imposible to tween a separate parameter in Flash CS3 is a farse. Adobe should focus on LiveMotion’s resurrection (or even better — take the timeline and all the editing features from After Effects). They should slow down. Yes, slow down and hold Flash CS4 IDE until 2009 it really shines and become usable for professional designers, developer and animators.
No matter how good will the new built-in editor be I’ll be probably still using Textmate though
Lee, for now this is all I ask from Adobe Flash CS3 Team:
Please let us disable the fade in/out of the CS3 Suite UI. I totally hate it, and a lot of people do.
Thanks,
Keehun
With ActionScript 3, is Adobe trying to focus more on developers?
Definitely, it is not so difficult to say: YES, WE ARE!
If I were the head of Adobe I would be very happy of having Java Programmers migrating to Flex now. It is a great market!
Designers are not going to any other platform cos there is not any other one by now.
Actually I feel disturbed about the future success of Thermo. I don´t see designers using it.
CS4
I hope there is not an Actionscript 4 for designers. It is like killing someones ability. I see many people saying they are devigners but I don´t believe so. I tend to think there are many who used to be designers but don´t design anymore.
I love the Flash community, and I love Flash, but I also love the english language. The word “devigners” is a horrible portmanteau. There’s already a group of people who refer to themselves in this way, but spelled “diviners,” who have an unrelated field of work.
Whatever happened to the perfectly legitimate term “designer-developer?”
On topic though, it seems more like the software is divided between “expert and novice” users, rather than “designer and developer” users. You talk about the emergence of the *ahem* designer-developer, yet in the same post talk about how each really has two separate software packages for creating Flash content.
Why should I need to justify to my boss why I need two separate programs made by the same company to create the same content? “Because one has a better code editor” is not gonna fly.
I use the Flash IDE to write my ActionScript 3 projects. I use everything the way that I’ve been told to use it (ie. Classes, Class Linkages).
I’d prefer to have the code editor in flash upgraded! Flex, meh. I like Flash, it’s warm and cozy.
2 wishlist items:
– Ctrl+D – Duplicate Line
– Ctrl+T – Trace current selected code in a handy format like SEPY does. trace(“SelectedCode: ” + SelectedCode);
All of us at Summit Projects (there are 5 full-time Flash developers here) use Flash CS3 and TextMate. We do hard core ActionScript programming, but haven’t really had the need to go with Flex. Perhaps because we still do a ton of AS2 work. Or perhaps because we don’t care how good Eclispse/Flex Builder is, TextMate just kicks so much text-editing butt that we’ll never give it up. Never.
Anyway, the point is that here is another vote (count it as 5 votes, actually) for hardcore Flash developers who don’t use Flex Builder.
I have to say that I was really disappointed in the latest version of Flash CS3 and AS3. Here’s why:
1) The Editor now sucks. I used to program in the Flash environment, but now that its syntax checking isn’t as good as the previous version, I can no longer code in the Flash environment. I now have to rely on Flex.
2) You took away some useful methods. What used to take one line of code sometimes takes 5-6. For example, I would place an object in a library of a FLA that I know I’m going to eventually load. I’d assign a linkage ID (or class name now in the new version) to this object. I used to simply call “attachMovieClip” to create a number of instances of this object. Working in the flash environment, it’s still not so difficult to create a number of instances. But if you’re coding in Flex, you now have to rely on archaic methods like “getDefinition” to get the same result that was possible with one call to attachMovieClip.
I know you’re trying to make actionScript into a “real” language, but please try not to forgot what makes ActionScript better than other languages. Please reinstate some of the simpler and useful old methods (or at least create new simple methods that get the same result.)
firebug for flash would be great…
“Firstly, the general consensus is that hardcore programmers are using Flex, not Flash. You tell me, is that true?”
No. Don’t assume that. And Flex/Eclipse is far from perfect itself.
I think adobe should look at a really tight way to integrate other text editors. Let textmate, sepy, primalscript etc do what they do best. Just find a way to tighten up the relationship maybe via a plugin bridge or something. I use textmate setup with the document class and drive the flash ide for compiling via a bundle that is in the repository at textmate. I get access to toss stuff on the timeline or in the library and all the uses of textmate.
I agree with flash’s timeline should look to AE for inspiration. I’d also love to see someway to tie the flash ide into flexbuilder-where they both are awre of the project folder and the classes already imported.
So, far, I am going to have to agree with Mr. Michael Hoskins the most. I am actually a developer who got into Flash in version 3 and have learned to become and employ design techniques over the years. So I am your “Flex”-candidate but I have been working with Flash so long that it is not likely I will switch out of it. Having said all of that, the whole “you’re a designer and you’re a developer” feels a bit Microsoft-y to me. Take Silverlight, as an example. While there are ways to “get into” silverlight that don’t cost a dime, if you really want to do it professionally, then you are best to purchase a set of tools (one that focuses on development, Visual Studio and one that focuses on design, Expression Blend.) This happens at MS because they buy a company and rather than integrate the skillbase to manage and develop their products, then just let them grow up in their own little worlds, with “integration points.” Please, do not go here with Flash+Flex (again, that sounds like the Adobe “line” right now.)
The bottomline is that when the user community asks, “Are you abandoning flash,” they are really asking if Flash Pro as an IDE is becoming less of a priority, and if the answer is “well, if you want a *good code editor in flash, you have to actually find it OUTSIDE of flash” then what is really being said is “Yes. We are actively investing in Flash as a runtime, but not in the designer-developer IDE experience that is Flash.”
*: Right now I use FlashDevelop and avoid the Flash editor for the same reasons everyone above is referencing. NOTE TO ADOBE: If generous folks creating FlashDevelop/Eclipse Plugin/SE|PY suddenly stop updating/distributing their products, then you might be in trouble. There is definitely a shelflife on how long you can ride their coattails (PS. You all should really throw some money at those projects for keeping Flash folks investing in Flash. To me, Flash CS3+FlashDevelop = good adequate experience. Take FlashDevelop out of that equation and Adobe stock drops, as far as I am concerned. Suddenly silverlight might start looking more attractive!) I would agree with Og2t. Take whatever time it takes to get the IDE right. Launch your Flash 10.x player/runtime/framework but don’t give us CS4 without a respectable editor. You will likely not get 2 more version opportunities before more Flash design-developers decide to try out flash alternatives (silverlight,Ajax-sans-flash, etc) if you break up the IDE experience.
Lee,
First, I’ve been a Flash user since version 5, and AS3 is the best thing Adobe has done as far as the language goes. It’s got a tough learning curve, but once you get going, it’s great. Hopefully, Adobe will not go backwards to the prior syntax, but maybe to appease designers, there should be some wizards or some automated code writing techniques for stuff like components so that they don’t have to do quite as much coding.
Second, it WOULD be nice to see the editor offer more features/functions. I also develop with Visual Studio from the evil empire, and the text editing features are really, really good. I think the editor is behind the times compared to other editors as I dabbled with Flex Builder and FlashDevelop recently…
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I hate the panel docking features in CS3! I think it’s some system trying to be intelligent but makes our lives more miserable. I also find the feature that makes a dragging panel translucent very stupid. It makes my computer slow and I don’t get the idea how it helps the users other than trying to be more pretty, not!
My biggest problem with Flash IDE is the help panel. It’s very hard to view the help manual inside the Flash IDE. The default panel size is too small to read. But if I make it bigger and drag it around, it tends to dock into other panels and once it’s docked, it’s very hard to get it out because it’s big.
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As a Devigner (love the new compact title you’ve given me!), who uses Flash every day I enjoyed this post. Like many here, my livelihood hangs in the balance long term.
Short term there are a couple things I’d love to get fixed ASAP:
1. UI in palettes is NOT working for me – especially in the Alignment dialog. Visually I find it really hard to “read” the subtle emboss icon at a glance and never know whether I’m aligning to stage or not.
2. PLEASE fix the import to library. Why is it not smart enough to know a .PNG from a .JPG?! I hate that extra step of having to go into properties and change all back one-by-one — a real time waster.
3. Another SUPER COOL CS3 feature would be to export Photoshop layers to separate PNG files (why is PNG NOT on that list?)
I did not mean to turn this into a gripe post. It’s just I have to live with these “features” every day.
On a more positive note: your tutorials are tremendous. If you’d like to see what I was able to build with your accordion video series, please see: http://www.myersdesign.com
Thanks again for all your posts and tutorials. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for the very informative post Lee. I consider myself a creative engineer that does a lot of ‘heavy development’ (strong C++ background). I have been flashing since v4 and am in love with AS3! My company creates electronic casino poker tables that use Flash as the front end and we actually use Flash–not Flex. We attempted to use Flex for a bit, but believe the work flow between our Graphics & Animation team and the development team goes much smoother using Flash. As more and more companies are using Flash to make “Software” (not just RIA’s), I believe Flash is still the better choice over Flex.
Thanks for all of the hard work on the platform!
[...] my little Dear Adobe letter. So many of you have responded from around the globe, giving me and Adobe feedback on so many aspects of the topic. It’s been really great to get this boiling in some of your minds [...]
[...] The Flash Blog.com (vergeet ook zeker niet eventjes de comments op de Flashblog post te lezen
[...]
Also, a code search tool would do wonders for Flash (like allowing people to migrate old AS 1.1 apps to AS2/3).
A simple tool that would search an entire .fla file for a string and return all entries found (ie: object (movieclip,button, root), frame, layer, line#).
If I just had this tool, I would have been able to migrate the project I used to work on to better code. Without the above tool the 4 yr old project suffered greatly.
[...] a hand and asking the question, “how can we make good, better.” Check out the threads here and check out Corban’s blog and pass him some [...]
devigners?
Are you calling me a dutch sexual organ?
That’s a terrible word. Please, for the love of the English language, let that term die a quiet death on this page.
Perhaps it for some reason is impossible to do this with Flash but one of the most basic and annoying things is that you cannot scrub the main timeline and see what’s happening within the different nested mc’s you have on stage, like you do with compositions in AE. Just a thought…
Quick question that may be off-topic but is related to the future of Flash.
Do you know whether or not Adobe will continue development on the Flash Slide Presentation format?
I find it to be a nice change from typical powerpoint type presentations sometimes but am wondering if its just a lost cause at this point.
Thanks for any feedback!
[...] So, this is my first post on my new site. I’m Danish, 26 years old (as of this writing) and web designer/developer by trade. Actually, I suppose I’m what you’d call a devigner. Here’s how Lee Brimelow of Adobe defines the term on theflashblog.com: “The term devigner has emerged to describe people who are skilled at both design and development and this is exactly the type of person that best flourishes inside of the Flash authoring tool.” Source: The Flash Blog [...]
I also vote for “not true” and totally agree with Daniel.
I’m also, A-So-Called “devigner”, honestly I prefer the term: “designing developer” or “developing designer”. I fought up those terms my self, as I find them to best describe my profession in Flash, and ActionScript (2.0 as well as 3.0). I personally think the Flash IDE will be around for sometime (CS4, 5, 6, 7, etc) but also tools like FlashDevelop and SE|PY will greatly help the programming part of flash, and I already see the integration there.
Take for example FlashDevelop, you code your application there, and press a hotkey combination and Adobe Flash compiles and runs the movie.
So what we’ll see in the coming years, is that the integrations between FlashDevelop / SE|PY and the Flash IDE becomes better, scales up and improves. That my theory anyway. So I’m glad that Lee Brimelow and the Adobe Flash team are taking our thoughts and findings into account for upcoming Creative Suit releases.
I just wanted to say that as a developer who spends alot of time working with designers i am hoping that adobe makes sure that cs4 is as amazing a product to designers as as3 was to devs. As much as there are things i think developers may still want in flash, i think that devs should be doing their coding in flex, they should learn how to integrate the two apps and the authoring tool should be setup so that designers and animators can work their magic. Since as3 / flex came out i think I have done maybe one job inside of the flash ide. Even when i don’t use the flex framework i still use flex to write the whole app and then we just use flash to generate assets. Obviously this workflow isn’t for every project for everyone, but i think developers have gotten alot of attention and I think alot of designers are really irritated that their work flow isn’t as improved every year. Stop spoiling us and let our friends get a couple new toys =)
I just now read this, and wanted to chime in on something..
Lee, you say that “for the time being, you’ll have to use Flex” in regards to the Flash coding environment alternative.
I can understand that this is coming from an Adobe employee, so I won’t hold that against you. But it’s certainly not true.
While I am getting more into Flex just to gain some additional RIA knowledge, I think that it’s going to be unrealistic for a Flash developer to shell out $500 just so they can have an alternate code editor.
I’ve actually found FlashDevelop to be an absolutely awesome AS2/AS3/AIR editor that not only has the same or more code features than Flex, but also works with Flash much more fluidly. And to top it off, it’s FREE!
That being said, I still think Flex has it’s place among us. But personally, unless Flex becomes more in-tune with the Flash IDE, I don’t think that it’s a very good solution for an alternative AS code editor alone.
Other than that, thanks for clearing some common questions up!
Regards.
My what a huge post !
Regarding the term, I personally prefer Jen DeHaan’s term: “deseloper”, but I don’t use it that ofter. The term doesn’t really matter. Because Flash uses so many formats its easy to ‘borrow’ functionalities from one software or another, that is why flash users handle many tools and get to choose what they can be: animators, designer, programmers, etc.
Thanks for the updates Lee.
I’ve grown up on Flash sort of, and I’d like to have the confort of Flash as time passes. I see a split between designers and developer, mainly because of Flex. Well I’m just getting the grips with Flex and I prefer Flash Develop over Flex for coding.
Some of the simple reasons are:
- FlashDevelop saves on compile, doesn’t annoy me to save the as file manually on compile
- the hints are better
- shortcuts are a bit better
- When it comes to XML, being able to select test vertically ( Alt+Drag ) is really nice
- Flash Develop runs much faster than Flex and it doesn’t eat that much ram.
I should complain about Flash as well. I’d rather my Flash worked smoother than looked smoother.
I liked Adobe’s initiative with the Flex Component kit for flash, but I think they should make it a bit easier to designer to create custom components for the flex developers.
I can’t wait to see the IK engine on Flash CS4. I hope the new timeline and animation system will help traditional animators make their work more natural than ‘webby’ in Flash.
I’d preffer an improved Fireworks than Thermo. Thank you Adobe for not killing Fireworks and adding some nice features to it ( by the way, how about some news on Director ? ). I think improving the Symbol Properties for the Flex Components in Fireworks will be a good choice. I think it’s much faster to prototype in Fireworks than in Photoshop and designer already have a hard time keeping up with new stuff( like as3 – it’s tricky with no programming background ). Having them learning a new tool instead of using Fireworks may not be a good choice. Developers need nice layouts for apps, not semi-functional static code prototyes, that they’ll re-write anyway, in my opinion.
A slightly more powerfull perspective grid in fireworks wouldn’t hurt ( Freehand used to have a pretty good one ). If not in fireworks, how about in illustrator, ’cause they both work well with flash.
It’s rough learning as3 as is and it scares me to see Adobe split designer from programmers. Hydra for example doesn’t look to simple for me. All code gets closer and closer to software development. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but what happened to good ol’ scripting for fun and experimentation ?
I don’t know why but I feel Adobe will throw some predefined as3 snippets to please the designer, just to get away with it, similar to the code libraries in director…just drag and drop’em and that’s it, but the code behind them behaviors is quite chunky.
[...] sumber: The Flash Blog [...]
To me, Adobe is going to lose old flash lover in favor of larger market.
Great news about the future of Flash. I use flash a good bit in my job, and am quite experienced with Actionscript as designers go.
However, there’s one huge problem with the future of Flash, and that’s Actionscript 3. AS3 is fantastic for developers. A huge increase in speed, and it opens up tons of possibilities. If I ever work on project with a developer, I’d be choosing someone who works in AS3.
However, AS3 is clearly a developers tool. It’s not geared towards designers and beginner multimedia authors in any way whatsoever. The common example is trying to do a button in AS3. It’s not intuitive in anyway, and requires a knowledge of listeners and is about 5 times longer than in AS2 or AS1.
Even for people like me, who are very competent Actionscripters, but not serious developers AS3 is a beast. Sure I’ve dabbled with OO and Classes in AS2, but I could also rely on rough coding too, I had the flexibility of quick and dirty code, or clean and clear code. Some projects required one way, other another. AS3 doesn’t give you that option.
Adobe seriously needs to think about how people new to Flash should proceed. Should they learn AS3 and get frustrated thinking that Flash is a tool for programmers, or should they push AS1 or AS2. There’s no clear vision for designers, animators and people making e-learning. Currently Adobe is so focused on how cool and fast AS3 is, that it has a kind of blinkered view of where beginners fit into that whole cycle. There needs to be clear leadership on where beginners, dabblers, and designers who don’t have a dev team fit in.
And I’ll tell you something, it should involved being able to place a goToAndPlay command on a button!
Just thinking about this some more. I think that what’s needed is really a guide and pathway for people to start using flash. AS3 is an endpoint for serious coders, but not needed for a lot of small projects like mini-sites, CD-ROMs etc…
e.g. If there was an Actionscript Basic, and beginners with little or no coding experience were encouraged to use this subset of the language with it’s loose typing that might be good. Then if you want to push further you can use AS3/AS4… whatever. The main thing is that beginners shouldn’t be punished for being beginners and not have access to the new VM.
[...] It was a great relief to see the blog of Corban Baxter talking about the same thing in an open letter to Adobe. This got the attention of Adobe and one of their Evangelists, Lee Brimelow to speak a little bit about the future of the tool – check out his responses here. [...]
[...] RC of Adobe’s Layer’s Magazine caught wind of my letter to Adobe and the future of flash article Lee Brimelow wrote also. It made the homepage of Layer’s Magazine this morning with The [...]
I’ve been developing web sites in C# (pure coder) for some years now and recently moved to flash just because I was tired of the ordinary sites, not even RIA is interresting. The kind of output produced by flash and the types of projects it’s used for is what attracts me, so please, don’t even mentiton flex, xml based UI’s etc.
Now to the flash critique, adobe (if someone is reading).
What is that joke of an editor you supply with such a powerful language and libraries? As a developer, looking at the so called IDE (from a pure developers view), I can’t help to feel very, very dissapointed. Coming from microsofts visual studio (which supports silverlight), the difference is something like that between photoshop and mspaint.
The only way for me to work with this is by using flashdevelop (I thank God daily). How come you can’t do better than this ???
You do realize you put a porsche engine in a hyundai ?
with love and hopes for future versions,
Robert
In Flash CS4, will it be easier to communicate with .net webservice?
@Kevin Cannon
Kevin – do you realise there’s an alternative to multimedia development that integrates very well with Flash – Director! It’s perfect for all the points you mentioned in your second post – ie. smaller scale projects on CD or DVD, minisites etc. In fact, there’s a new version to be released in March this year…Check out the Adobe site for more details.
A feature for Flash that I’d love to see is a rethink of the panel that pops up when you past from one FLA to another.
Don’t replace existing items
Replace existing items
Which items?
I’m thinking something that looks much like the advanced import from psd/ai with checkboxes next to each item and the ability to rename library items before you . It would solve a hell of a lot of issues when updating assets across multiple FLAs.
[...] I am definitely not the the creator of this some what new web term/title. I first heard the title web devigner while attending the AIR bus tour in Denver, CO in 2007. It was Lee Brimelow (a great speaker, a cool guy and who is Platform Evangelist at Adobe), who described himself as a web devigner, however he admittedly was not a huge fan of the word. I also agree it sounds a little goofy, however I feel it is currently the best title that describes myself (and may others). “The term devigner has emerged to describe people who are skilled at both design and development…” -Lee Brimelow [...]
[...] term devigner has emerged to describe people who are skilled at both design and development…” -Lee Brimelow No Comments, Comment or [...]
[...] De blogs de gente de Adobe [...]
Lee, I’m a “devigner” and this may be a simple question, but do you know why if you create a 750 pixel wide flash movie, the flash player renders only 749 pixels of it?
Maybe it’s a bug / feature. I don’t know but it sure is confusing.
Do you know if this has ever been addressed in the development work of flash?
I attempt a work around here: http://www.stanford.edu/~kwillis/blog/archives/2008/03/why_flash_movie.html
[...] The Flash Blog – What is Happening to Flash? [...]
Lee, first of all let me say I really enjoy your tutorials, they are great so please keep them coming. Next, not a huge fan of the term devigner either maybe Adobe could have a contest to vote for a new term for the cross breed of designer and developer. I myseld am a devigner and I have had great experience with both Flash and Flex. I love both of the progams but I definelty wish there was better integration between the flash and flex camps.
Thanks, from a cross breed developer/designer
Never mind the code editor in Flash. Just expose a command line compiler, and we can use any editor of choice and not have to alt-tab back and forth.
Why not just drop flex all together and add the functionality to CS4. We also need some secure data access classes (like ado) so we don’t have to keep writing httphandlers every time we want to hit the database.
[...] donosi Lee Brimelow na swoim blogu, nowa wersja b?dzie u?miechem w stron? designerów. Jest równie? szansa, ?e pojawi si? [...]
FALSE FALSE FALSE
I am a hardcore Flash programmer, and I have never used, nor do I have any current interest in, the Flex Builder. The built-in flash actionscript editor is basic but more or less functional. However, it is buggy as a swamp. One accidental click on the auto-format button can ruin your day, even going so far as to remove parentheses from your code!
For example, the following line of code:
t = v * (1 – s * (1 – f));
will get changed to this:
t = v * 1 – s * 1 – f;
which is not the same at all!
Just a little extra QA love and this editor would be at least passable for basic use.
But your statement that hardcore programmers all use flex is just begging for trouble.
Honestly, I wish there was MUCH MUCH better integration between Flash and Flex. Especially right now.
I am a hardcore Flash devigner, who does a lot of hardcore actionscript-only development. I have used Flex, but prefer to stick to pure AS, and Flex is pretty much impossible for me to use without using MXML (I always have problems). I want to dev for FP10 before Diesel comes out, but I can’t get my programs working in Flex……… very frustrating. Simply adding the ability to use Flex components in Flash, and default Flash components in Flex (or giving them both the SAME components, and component structures!) would make great strides in usability. Flash works nicely with the rest of the Creative Suite… why isn’t Flex in the Creative Suite??
Hopefully cs4 wont crash all the time like cs3 seems to. Normally when im publishing
Auto keyframing sounds great though, cant wait for that!
[...] rewritten timeline and auto keyframing. There’s an interesting post about it on the flash blog. It’s a few months out of date but gives a few bits [...]
I always loved Flash but Flash CS4 crashes all the time. many times everyday. something like opening flash by double-clicking a .FLA with a missing font may crash it without finishing opening the IDE. just moving objects with the mouse throughout the screen may crash it. One must press CTRL-S at every single move to avoid going crazy. Adobe is selling a BETA version of a product that never reached stability. Again: Adobe is selling a BETA version of a product that never reached stability. That should be illegal in the software industry & Adobe should be prosecuted for that. Why did I buy it I could use a open source option. Silverlight doesn’t have this issue, Flash CS4 is a COMPETITOR WITH A BROKEN ENGINE.
I’m really frustrated how unstable Flash CS4 seems to be. It feels like a beta (if not alpha…) product. For instance, a classic Timeline Tween with multiple filters constantly crashes Flash CS4. Or: at random, Flash CS4 is crashing just being opened for some hours…you come back from lunch, Flash CS4 crashed meanwhile.
Or: within some hours, the GUI becomes somewhat slow, the panels only resize in slowmotion and than crash, of course.
Other issues:
The undocked panels can only be resized by dragging them from the bottom ! For instance,the panels on my second monitor resize at random. This happened in Flash CS3 too, BUT in CS4, if the panel bottom is out of the screen, you cannot resize the panel by dragging, because you cannot grab it !! This is so idiotic, a prank or so.
Selling this crap to loyal customers
is not the way Adobe should go. In Europe, Flash CS4 cost almost twice as much as in the USA. I think, for the next years i wont buy any Adobe stuff.
I’ve been using Flash since version 4, and let me tell you, CS4 is one of the buggiest, most convoluted pieces of crap I’ve ever seen. I think some of the advancements are admirable, but there are so many buggy problems with this release, I’ve just about thrown the whole thing away. The new tweening method has all sorts of problems. You can’t add a static frame after the tween without using a workaround of adding a blank keyframe and copying and pasting the last instance. If you have a tween on a layer, forget trying to clear keyframes that are not part of the tween! If you have multiple alpha changes in a tween, the slider will NOT function. ETC ETC ETC!
And that’s just the tween model! Oh, and if you try to use classic tweening, sometimes your instances won’t resize, but will just snap to the final size at the end of the tween.
Needless to say, I have NEVER been so incredibly frustrated with Adobe as I am with CS4. Whatever bureaucrat forced this out the door before it was ready (and I’ve had plenty of problems with AI, PS, and ID) should be FIRED!!!!!!!! Can you tell I’m pissed??? GOOD!!!
I have been using Adobe FLASH and building application on it for the past 6 years… And I should say CS4 is the most unstable Flash ever!!!
I brought a new copy of cs4 and installed it on my laptop: core 2 Duo, 2GB ram running windows Vista (I wonder how the Mac version is?).
Sometimes Flash crashes at start-up… And sometimes when I open more than 2 files at a time and sometimes when there is a font missing. There is no specific pattern that could be explained.
I think ADOBE should consider fixing this ASAP…!!!
Flash is like the ultimate web application builder, Please don’t kill it !
Thanks
I am seeing serious issues with the way Flash CS4 is redrawing it’s windows, toolbars & palettes. At first I suspect video drivers, but no other application (on any of the several systems I own) acts this way.
If I should resize the IDE, nearly everything seizes up momentarily. Some items cough back to life after several seconds, sometimes drawing over the app’s other other panels/windows. If I had to approximate my experience with Flash CS4 over the past several months I would call it frustrating, sluggish, and unresponsive. I’ve never been a fan of the increasingly ’semi-magnetic’ (or semi-drunk?) way in which Flash panels sometimes want to cling to the edges of other panels when you drag them around, and it seems to me like CS4’s handling of panel/window management is the worst yet.
I understand that Adobe wants to have a familiar feel across all of it’s applications, but to me it feels like Flash CS4 was fed a little too much code from somewhere else (I don’t use Photoshop or other CS4 tools enough to recognize where from).
At any rate, the Flash CS4 experience for me has been abysmal and I often wish I had stuck with Flash CS3.
Lee, where are you? Thanks for your tutorials and all that. Now, please tell the higher-ups that they’ve taken a great thing and made a nightmare out of it and please provide some insight for us on what is wrong with Flash CS4 and when we can expect some serious fixes and updates. Mine crashes everytime I try to click a simple button. If AS3 is supposed to be the door to new and exciting things we should be able to do, you must realize that it’s kind of hard to believe when the program is crashing when we’re just trying to do simple, basic things, that once used to take us fractions of seconds and now require an inordinate amount of time and unnecessarily complicated coding. I second all the comments above. Especially Mark’s. Tweening is a complete farce now! Did the folks who dreamed it up ever even try using it before they released it??? Please Lee, be our advocate and help us all get back to work. Thanks.
Hi there, well.. as a devigner of sorts b ut definitely not a deselopper.. I come from basic graphic design.. I never understood why we don’t have styles sheets (character/paragraph) for text as in Indesign/Illustrator and color swatches with global color option like in Illustrator. How can we not have this in any app that deals with text and color (at least for certain users.. ok maybe not those who make cartoons or those who make Papervison 3D walls and SQL frontends.. but for ALL the others… !!!!!!! As for global colors.. I’m sure cartoonists would love that !!! Sure you can trick around with the library, make little swatches mc’s to fill stuff with or you can “paint” colors with actionscript.. but hell.. what about the basics… I want something more NORMAL
Here it is, January, almost February 2010 and Flash still crashes many times a day. Wow, what up Adobe yo?
I am not able to open any file old or new anymore in Flash CS4 and am frustrated by no answers or fixes that work. What is going on with Fash!!!