But the purpose of this post was not to infer that the Flash runtime does not have its warts: it does. Just that it does not need “saving” because some I-wanna-be-a-real-computer-when-I-grow-up supposedly threatens to unseat it as a ubiquitous rich content delivery platform.

Nice post. I want to comment about Flash Player,

There are many reasons that makes people angry, for me, as a developer, i cant find a fast way of sorting numbers, there is no way of using non-container (unlike any interactive object in Flash, they are all containers) interactive display elements because lack off system design, very poor Pixel Bender integration, many Types are implemented in high level in ActionScript, to build some thing fast and optimized you need to work like a mad programmer to track every leak (no way of utilizing custom memory management), yo dont have low level access to memory that in SANDBOX, no compiler optimization, no inline functions (I don’t understand why LLVM can and mxmlc not), no Z-Buffer, and so on.

I know they are all very specific but hey im talking as a developer. These are huge problems of Flash Player Development (i couldn’t remember all very sorry)

Every one can create a content without knowledge of programming. Say a banner, i never heard some body optimizing it. Usually you can find dozens of them in single tab. What Adobe suggesting is decreasing frame rate to 5 :S when no body using it. How do i know that. How do a designer or animator know that?

From a user perspective, i believe they really have problems… These are peoples who don’t even know how to install an application or remove it. I say, go and learn little bit about computer.

Im sorry for my bad english.

Again thank you for sharing.

Ali.

You know what those designers should do? Design.

I wouldn’t take my broken computer to a car mechanic, so why would you expect a designer to develop?

Designers design stuff, developers develop stuff.

“And yes, I’m an AS3 developer and can built a SWF to crash your browser very easily.”

Can you post this easy code so that we can at least fwd it to Adobe and it can be addressed.

Thank you for that, I’ve been trying to drill that into peoples heads for ages.

As to the Apple question. Oh how Apple are driving me nuts these days. I have been an apple user. Back when Adobe Photoshop was better IMHO on mac than pc. It’s almost as if Jobs has forgotten who his friend’s are/where. I often wonder where Apple would be today if not for Adobe. Ultimately software sells hardware. How many Mac users cam to that platform originally because of Adobe, ok Im not saying all, and Im not saying Mac hasn’t got merits. I just wonder if the user base would have been quite the same with out Adobe products.

We all know his reason for not adopting FlashPlayer on iPhone, are 1, the hardware wasn’t exactly great. 2, and the real reason, wanting to keep as much revenue as possible under Apple control. It comes to something when Apple seem to be more closed, controlling and megalomaniacal the microsoft.

I totally agree with you on another point too. Im a flex developer for the last few years, but Im a flex developer only because at the moment it best offers what I need. I’ve been developing software for over 25 years now; I’ve forgotten more languages and platforms than I like to admit. I’ve used whatever fitted the task at the time. No loyalty at all, none. If something new and better and more suitable to my clients needs comes along, thats where I’ll be. I’m confident right now, with my 25 years of platform hoping and future trend experience working full out as always, that I’ll be using Flash for a long time yet.

Glenn Williams
www.tinylion.co.uk

http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/html/help.html?content=10_Lists_of_data_4.html#121376
http://blogs.adobe.com/aharui/2007/03/garbage_collection_and_memory.html
http://tv.adobe.com/search/?q=memory%20leaks

“They need to develop an overly aggressive garbage collector just for newbies.”

LOL, it’s called AVM1/AS2… :)

They need to develop an overly aggressive garbage collector just for newbies.

But runtime exception errors (which rarely crash the browser, BTW) is not what I was referring to. Coding an application which crashes a browser, which usually occurs through poor memory management, is quite simply irresponsible because it can be prevented. There are exceptions of course, and that’s where the fault lies with Adobe and Apple.

While I agree to part of this, Adobe brought AS3 to Flash CS3, didn’t upgrade the code editor, no profiling tools, and, in my opinion, did a bad job educating on AS3. When AS3 does get used, we find tons of uncaught runtime errors. Yes.. responsibility is needed, but on both sides. Adobe gave the average Flash designer/developer a gun, pointed it toward their foot, and said, don’t shoot it.

And yes, I’m an AS3 developer and can built a SWF to crash your browser very easily.