Flash Developers: What Comfort Zone?

After reading Seb Lee-Delisle‘s article “HTML5 vs Flash – the aftermath“, I have been collecting some thoughts around what it means to be a Flash developer in relation to other languages and platforms. Note that I do not believe the article is in any way antagonistic toward Flash as a platform or Flash developers… it did give me some time to think through some things that probably need to be stated though.

The first thought that came to mind after reading through the post was that Flash developers are being represented as only working in Flash. What? I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a Flash developer who just “does Flash”. Rather, being a Flash developer necessitates the use of many varied languages just to integrate Flash applications into the greater Web.

Think for instance on what goes into something like a Flash-based audio or video recorder as part of a greater application:

Audio Recorder - Flash, Flex, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, BlazeDS, Java, Oracle, Spring, Alchemy,

A developer has to know…

  • HTML to mark up the website…
  • CSS to appropriately skin and style…
  • JavaScript to allow Flash and the browser DOM to interact…
  • ColdFusion, PHP, or Java to allow Flash to communicate with the greater application…
  • BlazeDS, AMFPHP, or ZendAMF to perform AMF calls…
  • SQL to be able to interact with the database…
  • and who knows what else!

This is just one example from my own experience as a developer. I doubt this is rare.

Aside from general Web technologies, Flash developers are always exploring other venues. This could be C#, WPF, Android Java, Objective-C, Unity, Ardurino… the list goes on. Along with language and platforms exploration comes other interests such as video production, design work, and music composition and recording as expressed through projects such as CodeBass and Emergent Collective One.

One reason I was initially drawn to Flash over a decade ago was that I was able to do just about anything with it I could think of: animation, programming, images, audio, video. Where limitations existed it could be easily extended using other technology. This hasn’t changed and is still one of the primary reasons I continue to prefer the Adobe Flash Platform – it allows, and even encourages, me to push my limits and explore complimentary technologies.

In short: Flash is my gateway drug :)

16 thoughts on “Flash Developers: What Comfort Zone?”

  1. Using AIR means NativeProcess, and that opens the door to the wide world of CLI scripting. C, Python, Ruby, whatever – you can integrate into absolutely anything.

    That said, I kind of agree with Seb. I think we’re at a sort of a crossroads right now, and anyone who thinks that doing a photo gallery with Flash is a great idea is really behind the times – unless their gallery is really pushing the envelope in terms of interactivity and surprising features.

    That said, I still think AIR is where it’s really at. I suspect in 5 years those of us still doing Flash are going to be targeting AIR (both desktop and phone-based) much more frequently than we target a browser plugin.

    Then again, Molehill is coming out so who knows – maybe we’ll see the first serious movement towards quality 3D interfaces on the web. I’m kind of skeptical – but I’m willing to be surprised.

    Honestly I think moving forward the real money in Flash is going to be in small studios building games and launching them on app stores across all devices. That’s an incredibly powerful hook and right now I think it’s heavily underrated by the haters.

    1. Oh, certainly. NativeProcess opens up untold areas of exploration.

      The thing is though- I’m just exploring one of his points here: the supposition that Flash developers are only doing stuff like a “Flash Website” instead of exploring other technologies.

      Seems to me like the type of dev who is attracted to Flash has no problem working in anything so long as it gets them to whatever goal they have set. Flash devs are a hungry bunch of people!

      1. In general, sure – but I also know a non-trivial segment of the Flash community that is so locked into a comfort zone that they code on the timeline, or still use AS2. He makes a fair point – it’s just a question of, if that doesn’t apply to you then he’s not talking about you.

        But yes, point taken! :)

  2. I agree with your sentiment. Flash devs (should) love to learn new tech! My big problem is with the fact that we’re now being introduced to LOTS of reasonable tech to get the job done. All of this tech may fail or it may become the next big thing.

    As someone who does web apps, which tech do you bet on? You can’t be an expert in them all. Of course, you can make the argument to just have fun and choose the one you dig. But as someone who plans to do that, but ALSO would like to stay marketable in our industry, its a big problem.

    A reasonable company will look for a smart developer who is open to learning. However, if you have to go through HR to apply for a job – you have to have certain buzz words on your resume. I had a friend recently who was asked if they have “CMS experience” when applying for a job. Another tweet I read was for someone with “mobile experience”. What does this even mean?

    I guess the point is that while learning new tech is all well and good (and fun) – it seems impossible to me to know how to prepare myself with both experience and marketability for the next couple years if I ever needed to look for a job.

    With Flash it was easy – HR put a big checkmark next to “Flash” and “AS3”, and it was easy to find those people because it wasn’t a niche. Am I going to be turned down from my next job because it never occured to me to try Dojo or extJS in favor of jQuery? Or maybe I’ll get turned down because I never tried Obj-C because I’m on Android.

    1. i hear that. Remember when Flash MX would come out and you could brush up on the docs and know everything in a week? Not anymore.

      I’m not saying everyone needs to be an expert in everything though- I’m saying Flash devs are generally not scared to look beyond Flash and try new tech…

      1. Yes man! I agree with you!
        The android is other opportunity! becouse de Air tha same developer can be learn how built app for any mobile!
        Flash is my drug too!

  3. not all flash dev are the same :)

    here the worst things I’ve seen:

    * flash dev that are just happy with the 9 to 5 job
    and does not explore flash or other tech on week ends

    * flash dev that does not write blog or use twitter or whatever forum,
    in general they don’t even try to talk with the big flash community out there

    * flash dev that had never done one side project

    * flash dev that had never created or participated in an open source project

    here the best things I’ve seen:

    * flash dev discovering insane hacks and sharing them with the community

    * flash dev putting out there their source code and experience on particular subject

    * flash dev putting out there great open source projects

    * flash dev talking about programming, not just flash

    I’m not saying a flash dev HAVE TO do this or do that, but still…
    a great flash dev, or dev in general, is someone that can learn new things,
    and share those things.

    1. Good points – I can see how my experiences may be isolated. Main interaction with other Flash devs is through the Adobe community, Twitter, blogs, an so forth. I guess I wouldn’t have exposure to many 9-to-5’ers.

  4. I would consider myself a one-trick-pony. Everything I do, and plan to do, centers around AS3/Flex. Of course you’re right in that to create the entire end to end I product I have to have an understanding of MySQL and a smattering of PHP. But it has been at least 5 years since I wrote even a single line of Javascript that wasn’t copy/paste. ( And it’s been a happy 5 years. )

    I’m impressed with developers who can write apps in C#, Obj-C, Actionscript, HTML/Javascript, etc. Kudos to them. It’s just not my thing. Just the thought of maintaining two or more codebases makes me want to gag.

    And as far as learning things there is no limit of things to learn with just Actionscript alone. I’m picking up Away3D right now. It’s fantastic learning a new skillset and getting comfortable with the new opportunities it opens up. Is it another language? No. But it’s just as important to learn these powerful technologies within Actionscript as it is to learn new languages outside of it.

    1. See- this is the exact same spirit though. Generally, the Flash devs I know absolutely love to push their tools and expand past the same old stuff. You mention this is within the Flash Platform itself- makes me think of how all this tech is really just different expressions of the same basic stuff anyway. New frameworks and libraries within Flash/Flex can be just as uncomfortable to start out with as, say, a Flash dev learning Java or PHP.

      I respect the drive to innovate that I see in the Flash community. It saddens me when I see it belittled or dismissed out-of-hand :(

  5. I get that from time-to-time myself: “when you’re ready to be a real programmer then you’ll learn…” You know what I say? “Fu#* the bozos!” :)

    I’ve used this analogy before: do artists belittle each other based on the medium they use? Would an artist who paints with oils belittle another artist who works with water colors? Or a metal sculptor put down a stone sculptor for being old school? I just don’t see that happening. It’s about the art. Not about the medium.

  6. I had that discussion with a friend a couple of weeks ago. The beauty of being a flash dev, is that you must know about pretty much everything. From video to audio manipulation. From motion design to byte manipulation. From DB architecting from software optimization techniques. From physics to 3D and usability standards.

    It’s well known that a good flash developer should learn all those things from the core, taking aside the language we use, to use them in any scenario. Take Mr. Doob for instance… he was not a Flash Dev who migrated to “what used to be called HTML5”, instead, he’s a developer who knows his business and can apply his skills in any given scenario. From C, to AS, to JS, he’s the living proof that learning things aside an umbrella like FLASH, or JS is the right thing to do.

    There’s no real “comfort zone” if you really know what you’re doing.

  7. When I started using Flash back in the day, I didn’t know about AS or any other coding language So everything was new to me and sort of developed a learn and do way of working, that’s the same now I love working with flash as3 and flex but if the current project push me to learn new stuff i’ll go and try to learn it and as You say being a flash developer means not only AS3 but all the things that glue your app together. And I consider that the most healthy thing You can do as a developer, I’ll try to make an analogy here hope I explain myself “If You go to a gym and always use a bike it doesn’t mean that you can’t use weights and elliptical trainers and at the end of the day You still love using the bike but now You know how to use and train on those other machines”. So that said I don’t see HTML5 or C# or any other language as a threat to a Flash Developer if You like HTML5 it’s fine if You like Flash is fine knowing other language won’t erase what You know of AS3 and one of the cooler things that I love of my work is the fact that even after quite some years working I get to learn something new everyday.

  8. As far as I am concerned, ever since I started using Flash (2002), the constant evolution of the tools and runtime have effectively required me to learn a new technology every couple of years just to keep up with the leading edge of what being a “Flash Developer” actually means.

    If your intention is to stay current, the Flash ecosystem doesn’t have a comfort zone.

  9. For me, the most unfortunate thing about the shift in the ‘political climate’ in the digital space over the past year or so is that there is now this ‘stigma’ about being a Flash developer (depending on the milieu) such that a person feels like they might have something to prove… Even though — echoing the sentiments of the posts above — Flash development has always been about marshaling so many different kinds of technical-creative skills to a degree way beyond that of most other developer roles out there.

    So like, what? Just over the past six months, I’ve had my hands dirty with over half a dozen different computer languages and development platforms, but now just because some people are capitulating to the new “PC” climate around HTML5, I have to defend myself about being a Flash developer by trade or the breadth of my programming knowledge? Nah, f that. If you’re trying to push things forward within your chosen programmatic discipline, whatever about all that.

    BTW, thanks Joseph for your post.

  10. Yeah dude!!! No Flash developer just “Does Flash”!!! Although that’s the url of my blog, still. :D

    I read the other article earlier today, even left a comment, but you’ve shed some light on it now. WE, the Flash developers of the world hold the greatest potential to branch to other languages, But somehow always (mostly) come back to Flash – Maybe it’s just a great platform? Maybe the community is great? Maybe the love for Flash is too strong to ignore? I’ve been doing Flash for 6 years straight – I don’t see an end very soon. ;-)

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