[Sigia-l] The Engagement Platform: The future of app design according to Adobe

[Dave Heller]

Hi Ziya,
I'm sorry, I wasn't using Flash to mean what you were stating. I was
meaning it as the application Flash Studio. BTW, this has always been
a confusing factor in macromedia in that it was never clear if you
were talking about the player, the studio or the format when you
uttered the word "Flash".

Flash studio is not being completely embedded into Flex. They said it
will have a lot of it, but nothing that will allow you to create the
animations that are so easily done through the timeline today.

My troubling mind is that while I can see that this is irrelevant to
many app designers, many app designers do care about animation in
their solutions.

I think they have this whole thing wrong. Instead of Flashing actually
being the tool, it should be a framework to plug in many tools. Why
shouldn't I be able to use Fireworks (or PHotoShop) in this iDE
environment for example? What happens if my application actually is
about video, or requires a video component? I have to move ina nd out
of the IDE, thus manking it not so I as a DE goes. ;)

As for the others stuff you said, it seems very close to on target.

BTW, i'm less worried about developers just doing our design as I am
about business folks. That's who they seem to think is going to do our
jobs. That is quite disturbing.

--d ave

On 2/25/06, Listera <listera at rcn.com> wrote:
> Dave Heller:
>
> > Flex as the new flash is what troubles me the most.
>
> Hmm, Flex isn't the new Flash.
>
> Flash is the run-time engine for .SWF/.FLV files. Flash-the-IDE, as an app,
> is but one way to author .SWF files. You could conceivably author Flash in
> Notepad/TextEdit.
>
> Flex is another approach to generating .SWF files, albeit in a declarative
> language paradigm, MXML. The Flex IDE itself changed from a Dreamweaver
> add-on to a an Eclipse plug-in. So the Flex-the-IDE, as an app, is just
> another way to author .SWF files that the Flash run-time engine can parse
> and render.
>
> In that sense, Flex is to Flash what Microsoft Expression Interactive
> Designer is to Avalon/WPF. Except, of course, Flash runs in all
> browsers/platforms and the latter only on Vista/WinFX.
>
> So technically, Flash and Flex are two different animals.
>
> But, as you point out, where design falls into place in all this is what
> should matter to us all. On that point, both Flex and Expression promise
> great advances as well as, potentially, great peril.
>
> Both of them simplify the process of laying out complex RIA UIs, and,
> specifically, bridge the distance between conceptual design and technical
> build. You can *visually* design complex UIs, describe the functionality of
> UI controls and bind their behavior to actual data without writing
> procedural code.
>
> That's huge. That's godsend to anyone who makes (functional) prototypes.
> That's gigantic for allowing designers (and non-technical people) to
> demonstrate their intent without throwing themselves at the mercy of the IT
> dept. In that sense, the Spakle notion is one of the most sensible and
> exciting things to come out of Microsoft in a long time. As is Flex out of
> MM.
>
> What is perilous is the other side of the medallion: just as these make it
> easier for designers to create functional prototypes without writing
> procedural code, they also make it "easier" for developers to create actual
> apps without the help of designers. So we'll see a new wave developers
> playing designers, using these tools. Well, stuff happens.
>
> As to the Engagement Platform: Adobe has an existential moment in history.
> Can they "unify" print/computer/video/mobile/etc "screens" into one
> production/delivery platform? Earlier, PostScript was precisely this
> unifier: bridging print/monitor and later video. To a great extent it
> succeeded, but in many ways it failed. This is round two for Adobe. As
> Chizen says, anywhere there's an LCD (computer, cellphone, living room TV,
> etc) this new platform should adapt liquidly.
>
> Anyway, untrouble yourself, Flex is your friend.
>
> ----
> Ziya
>
> "Innovate as a last resort."
>
>
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--
David Heller
E: dheller (at) gmail (dot) com
W: www (dot) synapticburn (dot) com