FITC 06: Open Your Mind To Open Source Flash
Presentation Title
The Open Source Flash Revolution
Speaker(s)
Aral Balkan (flashant.com, London MMUG)
Did I stay for the whole thing?
Yes.
Reason for Attending
I’ve always found open source development intriguing. I have a tremendous respect for OS (open source) contributors because they don’t code for monetary gain. They code for the passion of it. They also code to evolve the software by opening it up to other developers.
Highlights
Learned about OS tools that are out there other than AMES, FlashDevelop, AMFPHP. Will try to attempt to get MTASC into my work workflow. I am already using it for the odd personal project. One of things that will be deeply embedded in my mind because of this sesion is the reason why the commercial MMC is slow than MTASC. I took for granted that the Flash IDE is slow in that it compiles the graphics and then it compiles the code. Contrast this with MTASC in that if that provided that graphics remain the same, it is only the code that recompiles.
Constructive Criticisms
There was a lot to cover in such a short amount of time and things became rushed. One thing I have to say about the problem promoting open source is that the fact that it is “free and very cool” overshadows the actual need the software is trying to address. For the beginner OS tool user, they need to have the context explained in a transparent manner why would one choose to go with an OS tool over the commercial version. The reason why I am saying this is that something like AMES/FAME should be evangelized to application developers who use Flash. In a multi-platform environment where CVS, Unit Tests, ANT-like build scripts, and team-based development are the norm, OS tools as such have a lot to offer. Correctly me if I am wrong but I think applying Eclipse to anything else is overkill. I am placing too much emphasis on the Eclipse stuff but Aral did spend most of the time breaking down AMES.
Would I See This Person Talk Again?
Yeah, for sure. There are very few out spoken Flash developers in the Toronto user group, Flash In TO. London is lucky to have someone at the forefront of promoting OS Flash and informing other Flash people that we have options.
Post Event Action
Fiddle around with AMFPHP even though I’m kinda happy with old fashion URL Encoded HTTP Methods. Session notes is actually the entire http://osflash.org/ website.
FITC 06: See other reviews
