Flash MX 2004 from a Designer's Perspective

 
Dec 27, 2003
Joel Davies posted a review of Flash MX 2004 that is well worth reading, not just because it's written cleverly and with great humor, but most importantly, because Davies' experience as an old school Flash designer and early adopter of the product gives him an invaluable perspective and insight. Many reviews I've seen so far talk up the innovations in Flash MX 2004 that make the product more accessible for developers, but few reviews actually focus on the effect these changes will have on Flash's core audience, the designer.

Davies gives the latest Flash a rating of "2 bounces -- lackluster", and one of the major reasons he gives are the changes in the Actions panel that make it much more suited to developers. As Davies says, "I suddenly realized that if I really wanted to use the Actions panel, I was going to have to become a coder. There are no longer dialogs with text fields that make coding simple evaluations and variable programming easy. It's actual programming now, and I couldn't be less happy."

In the end of the article, he does talk about some of the positive improvements in the product, but apparently the same changes that might endear Flash MX 2004 to programmers have given Davies a very bad first impression.

Review -- Macromedia MX 2004 -- First Impressions (Applelust.com, November 21, 2003)


Privacy | FAQ | Site Map | About | Guidelines | Contact | Advertising | What is ColdFusion?
House of Fusion | ColdFusion Jobs | Blog of Fusion | AHP Hosting