On 10/02/2012 03:26, Michael A. Labriola wrote:
IMO, spark was a problem because it was forced to be evolutionary. I was
involved in the beginning of those decisions. I would have preferred spark be a
complete rewrite based on a new ideas as well. Unfortunately with the staffing
that was being allocated, the timeline to do so was prohibitive. I fear the
same thing here.
I have seen/read/participated in a more than few projects that handled
it the other way around. The problem with revolution and "lets start
with a clean slate" is that it is fun at the beginning but at a certain
point you start realizing how many things you forgot that were solve
perfectly in the old system and it takes a long time to come to the same
level again.
Changes that make it better in a month are interesting. Changes that solve real
pain points that enterprises have today with using Flex might keep them on this
framework and stop them from switching away... which is what every major
enterprise is weighing today for new development. A theoretical rewrite that
might make things better in the future requires 2 things: hope and faith. Adobe
effectively abolished both of those qualities over the last few months.
Honestly speaking: All of my clients ask me for HTML 5 and nobody for
Flex. If you want to make them stick do nothing for the next twelve
months but prepare the current code base to work on JavaScript. This way
Flex might get public traction and a good image.
However there are two other strategies that could actually work:
1) A framework that produces awesome(in other words new!) experiences:
Great design, super interactivity. Its enough if they are published like
minimalcomps: without CSS or anything. Just so people see Apache Flex is
coooooll and they want that on their device.
2) A framework that offers seamless integration in Windows 8, Android
and iOS.
Both of these ways are sufficient as experiments to gain traction.
So: I saw a lot of designers participating in the Logo contest. I think
that is our strength: How about a UI Next design&concept contest
(without votes). It might bring us some publicity and actually good
ideas of where the travel should go :) Whoever wants could start
implementing the design either in Spark or Flex Next.
I know we don't see things the same way, but a really great framework that runs
on Flash Player 1 or 2 years from today is totally useless to me. None of my
clients will care or notice because they won't be using this technology. My
hope is that we can make changes that make the 2 year time frame matter.
I totally agree: Lets take all the momentum we have got! It sounded like
you have an concept of how you would see DI in Flex Next. It would be
nice if you could write the important bits and pieces down in the wiki
so we have something to talk about!
yours
Martin.
