[snip] > > But you see Spectra *was* a successful product.. very successful in fact > -- just not for Macromedia. When they took over Allaire they canned all > products that required professional services.
damn merger... i miss the Allaire logo....*sob* - i agree, Spectra was actually a shock to me when i first heard it's death. I was like why would they give that up? and while Darren & Trent (ex-THIESS) used to piss and moan about its annoyances here and there, they did say it was pretty darn powerful numerous amounts of times (besides they both tend to whine a lot..bwhahaha). > Spectra was a toolbox -- you have to build something with it. It was Thats what i was trying to ask spike earlier. I've been told numerous times that off the shelf version was more of a "here's the base concept, now go build..build my minions..build!" - yet people that i know of (other then the THIESS guys - represent y0..) used to whine about how it doesn't do this and the UI is crap and hard to use and all this crap..actually i think it was THIESS guys heheheheheh (kidding..) - all because they assumed it was *install* and magically they had a CMS that didn't require work - ok they = me...but move on. I remember looking at it and going custom tags and objects..hrm.... and ended up stealing a lot of ideas from it. I've even noticed that with FarCry Geoff has a few cherry picks in play ;) - or was that spike's fault...probably..never can trust that irishman to conjure up ideas, as he probably biten another dev for them too... ah.. i kid., > not a solution. Macromedia was simply not geared up to support the > platform directly through professional services and didn't put much > stock in partners (at the time). They simplified their portfolio of > products to concentrate on shipping boxes off the shelf -- with that > they fired almost their entire professional services group and put the > sword through the partner program. They were drastic times that called > for drastic measures -- perhaps not all of them appropriate. Well, i still say they shouldn't of hired that bloody Sean Corfield, i mean all he seems to be doing now days is helping people ...clearly he's not meant for the evil empire of that which is Macromedia. Looking back on what Macromedia did in terms of shutting stuff off and keeping focus on the MX range, you kind of have to see the roadmap they took and wonder was it a breaking point or not. I think dislodging products like CFStudio and Homesite and trying Dreamweaver MX was a pretty damn ballsy approach - that backfired imho.... don't get me started on FLEX BUILDER...but even MM acknowledge that product was a "ya know what..we screwd up on this one".. CFMX - well, lets not fight...as its purty and i'll fight any man/woman/goat here that says differently..toe to toe like. FLASH MX - i have a lot of gripes with this damn product, but i can honestly say that despite its petty annoyances the tools provided aren't that bad all said and done..its just certain frameworks that i have to take task with. So I'm glad they ramped up this product as its opened up new possibilities (for me) Spectra? I often wonder what would happen if that were to be continued with maybe FLEX/FLASH 7 thrown into the mix (not sure how but i'm not an engineer..go figure). Sitespring sucked and Contribute is enough. Products that have also dropped off the radar in many ways are: Breeze, Flash Communication Server *heh wonder if the two have something being hatched*, Robo-XYZ products, Authorware and lets not forget Director. Are they crap? if you dare say yes i swear to my-god-who-art-in-Half-Life-2 i will slap you with a clue. Those products will not be forgotten and may be hatching some evil plot to i dunno... make our lives easier - business wise. > > i'm seeing the exact same issues with flex... > > The same issues are not present in Flex. Flex is a toolset that is > unique in the market place (and things like Laszlo and XAMLON don't even > come close at this time). I'd write-off Laszlo, i don't see it doing much in the way of anything exciting in the near future - XAMLON - well, C|NET did an article today on them, if anything that will empower Robin & Co to push harder at it and i've kept my mouth shut on this product as i see it maybe as being a dark horse. > Flex builds on an existing empire -- the Flash Player empire. For > Macromedia, Investment in Flex technology is an investment in Flash. > Expect to see more and more Flex-based technology emerging in due course > -- CF7 is just the first. Yeah, i mean you should see...*bites tongue*............................ *watches as a team of lawyers jump through the window, lazers pointing at ones chest daring me to say one more freakin word...say it...i dare ya..say it...* You don't have to be a freakin genius to figure out that Flash Player is getting to damn powerful as of late. Mobile Devices are looking to it for "stuff", Corporations are getting more mobile in terms of technology. Websites are getting much smarter then they where 5 years ago, Coldfusion is hinting and scratching at the whole FLASH service - that and XML/XLST and what not seems to be a more important feature in our lives - if you had said to me 5+ years ago..yeah we are going to use like this Tag-based flavour to like describe stuff to use like in terms of UI/Clients and reporting and what not..no seriously... i would of given you a weird look, slipped a $5 note in your pocket and said "get a hot meal you poor weird little man" - yet today its more of a "dah..dumbass, clue up" Hell, you know when Flash Player gets a little extra power is when Apple consider it for a freakin iPOD...clearly thats enough for me... as if no1 owns an ipod today... a baby is born and the doctor asks you to cut the chord and you look at it and go "i wonder what i did with my ipod" - ie the cause the chord is like headphones in an ipod and its constantly connected to your body. get it.....oh please its funny. Games are using Flash for Menus now - don't discount the power of games, they tend to be up there with movie sales... Imagine this: Your in a corporation, your working on an intranet and you company is spread out across australia/world and you need to deliver information to key people in order to get key aspects of the business done. What do you choose? do you bank on Java soley? - clearly these clowns have work to do in terms of breaking into "multimedia"... oh sure Sun have this nice 3d Tabbing OS ..oooOOoo... but they are run by guys with come-overs, thick glasses and who cry at the site of a pretty girl.... litterally cry. Microsoft? pft, sure you could once they figure out what technology they can buy first... sorry ever since i saw Anti-trust, i just can't bring myself to respect Microsoft - even if the movie was fiction.......or was it.....ya know gatesy looks shifty...and ol steve...well.. he did look like that other bald dude in the movie... Dada.. Macromedia, they seem to have a pretty darn good server-side solution(s) in terms of data modeling and ui, they have this crazy little app called Breeze which is a freakin powerful concept. Oh then there is Flashcom for those of you who need to stream video, then of course there is the upcoming super duper darling of them all.. Flash Lite..awww aint she pretty, i can just see my CEO drooling at the capabilitiy of firing someone via a mobile (most likely me for the amount of time spent crapping on in forums like this). You are all on Crack if you think FLEX is a wash-away concept that had its day in the sunlight but never got around to flowering... its been deflowered and its quite darn open about it too. > >>Having been involved in migrations from Spectra, Interwoven, Vignette > >>and others I can tell you that Spectra had a lot more going for it than > >>people realise. > So was Spectra a failure? I certainly don't think so. It was > comparatively better technology for the price than most things in the > market at the time. We built a good business selling and supporting the > platform -- a platform that we continue to support for several clients > even now. So you're the one. hehehe. > It just wasn't a good enough prospect for ongoing success -- especially > in what has turned into a comodity market dominated by excellent open > source solutions :) I mean you could say Spectra was a farCry from whats available now eh...nah..actually that pun was pathetic. Anywho, Spectra looked pretty darn good imho but so did my wife when i meet her....bwhahahahah...oh dear god that's going to do a full u-turn and bite me one day... (kidding). -- Regards, Scott Barnes http://www.mossyblog.com http://www.flexcoder.com (Coming Soon) --- You are currently subscribed to cfaussie as: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Aussie Macromedia Developers: http://lists.daemon.com.au/
