> I'm furious about the price and have been very vocal about this with Macromedia over the last week. > I think they have made a major mistake with this.
I can feel another Spectra coming on! Having said that, it might be a another good opportunity for someone like the Daemon guys to come up with a sensible product that works in a similar way at a price that people can afford. And one that even integrates better with other MM products. There is nothing "earth shattering" in the concept of the FLEX technology. Come up with your own XML schema (give it a swanky name) and make a server that can generate the SWF (along with a little library to talk back to the server) and then build an IDE (even a web-based one written in Flash) to hook it all together. There is a very similar JavaScript solution available now (XML schema based, with a JavaScript API). Maybe it does not have all the Flash libraries - but the concept is just the same. I'm doing that very same thing now with other projects I am working on (XML schema, some sort of engine to understand and render it - CFMX or JavaScript) and "voila!" you have a new language to deploy things with. I asked at MXDU about FLEX integration with Flash Communication Server and all I got was a blank look. And then when I said that any FLEX solution that we were likely to use (regardless of price) would need to either integrate with FCS and/or have FCS built into the FLEX server...... Another blank look. As many of you know, I am still not a Flash convert (even now having done a couple of full tutorials - basic and advanced). I had hoped that FLEX would push me more in that direction (so I did not have to wrangle with the Flash IDE). But I can't see this being a viable solution. I want it to build quick and clean (rather than dirty) Flash plug-in applications. It can do that - but the cost is stupid. Our organisation will tell me to build it using JavaScript. And, while we are not actually a large multi-national company, we have got the money to spend on a FLEX server if we wanted it. It's not that we cant afford to pay the price - it's that the price is ridiculous. But then, by MM's definition, we aren't the customer they are looking for - because we don't want to pay that price! To me, it is SMALL BUDGET places that will get the best benefit out of FLEX because they can't afford to pay a swag of different programmers and designers to deliver Flash, HTML and Cold Fusion. They can only really afford one or two people who have to do the lot. And relieving some of the pressure (i.e. using FLEX instead of Flash directly at a SENSIBLE price) would be a goldmine for MM if they priced it right. The people that can afford a couple of Flash developers and a handful of CF programmers - as well some good CSS/XHTML designers - will, in most cases, prefer to write their own stuff. And, in talking to many of the people at MXDU, this was the "mood" towards the pricing (even before it was announced officially). But this was all said at MXDU and even sign language was not enough to open the deaf ears. And there is another thing..... I also asked at MXDU about multiple templates for FLEX (other than just Halo)...... .....another ....blank ....look Gary Menzel Web Development Manager IT Operations Brisbane -+- ABN AMRO Morgans Limited Level 29, 123 Eagle Street BRISBANE QLD 4000 PH: 07 333 44 828 FX: 07 3834 0828 If this communication is not intended for you and you are not an authorised recipient of this email you are prohibited by law from dealing with or relying on the email or any file attachments. This prohibition includes reading, printing, copying, re-transmitting, disseminating, storing or in any other way dealing or acting in reliance on the information. 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