Deja vu all over again

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When I started this blog in 2007, I had been developing in a technology called Authorware that Adobe was in the process of killing off. So I decided to concentrate on teaching myself Flex, sharing what I was learning with others who were also making that transition.

I still work in Actionscript a lot, primarily in Flash, but unfortunately I've had to come to the decision that it's not the best use of my time to blog about some of the neat things I'm still doing.

It's not fair to say I'm learning JavaScript, since I've been doing JavaScript in some form for over ten years, but I am learning about the JavaScript ecosystem as I find it in 2014, particularly surrounding AngularJS. I'm shifting focus to once again ramp up in tools that are relevant instead of ones that are becoming less relevant. In the process, hopefully I can help others who are making a similar transition or just who want to learn about the parts of the process that I delve into. I like to think that I'm willing to write about things that others may not feel are glamorous enough to devote time to but that can be incredibly helpful if you're looking for just that information.

I have decided to keep the title of the blog the same. In part this is because I have some loyal readers who have been with me the whole way. In part this is because I think that the AngularJS world will realize in time that the particular experience that former Actionscript developers, especially Flex developers, bring to the table means that we're very well-suited to do things the "Angular way." I hope you enjoy the new direction.

2 comments:

Mark S said...

Definitely interested in this! I just took on a very large CBT to WBT conversion project and am using Captivate with a lot of JavaScript for quizzing (this client's quiz requirements are very unique). I'm about 1/3rd of the way through and am now wondering if I would have been better off doing it in good ole Flash IDE and using a JS framework, but I recall googling before starting this project and there was very little out there about the viability of the Flash IDE in an HTML5 world, and I couldn't risk being a 'trailblazer' : )

Amy - have you looked into Haxe? It seems to be getting major legs now that Adobe is allowing 3rd-parties/open-source communities to write their own compiler routines that would enable to use the Flash IDE with languages like Haxe and publish to the various formats that Haxe is supposed to support (Flash, java, python, JavaScript, etc.).

Amy B said...

I don't think the Flash IDE can do more than the most basic "banner" type animations. As far as I know Haxe doesn't work with the Flash IDE. My understanding is that even when you're creating output that can run in the Flash Player with Haze, it's just another way to create a swf vs. ActionScript with the Flash compiler. I think Haxe does also output other formats, JavaScript being one.