Now i can quickly search the entire archive from my mailclient.
Maybe its an option if someone can share his mail archive once a while (maybe Macromedia is willing to provide some ftp space).
Greets,
Sjors
Matt Chotin wrote:
THIS IS NOT AN OFFICIAL MACROMEDIA MESSAGE, ALL COMMENTS ARE MY OWN
1) You may have noticed that the response from Macromedia employees on
flexcoders has slowed down a little, I wanted to share a few thoughts on
that. 2) I also have seen a few questions regarding loading SWFs and subsequent
problems, I don't have new insight but can share some warnings.
3) My own view on the state of flexcoders and its developers.
----------------
1) Wondering where the Macromedia employees are for answering questions?
The answer is hard at work on the next version of Flex. Despite the fact
that we've made no official announcement about what will be in the next
version, when it's coming out, etc, it doesn't mean we aren't busting our
tails to try to come up with something special. In fact things are pretty
busy here in Flex-land, and that means that we're focusing on tasks directly
in front of us and looming deadlines more than answering questions from the
list. It's been a relief to see so many of you out here answering
questions, it lets us feel like we've provided enough bootstrapping that
developers can help each other without being involved (more on this in my
part 3). This doesn't mean that we're not reading the list, but it may mean
we're slower to respond and may not have time to research questions we don't
know the answer to easily.
This is my own process for answering flexcoders issues (not recommending for
others but it's the only way I can stay sane):
1) has the question been answered (even partially) by someone else on the
list? -- delete
2) is the question something that I've seen asked and answered before
recently (and know that the people who can answer the question are active
participants)? -- delete
3) is the question something I know the answer to and can explain easily --
answer
4) is the question something that I don't know the answer to but can point
someone towards solving it themselves? -- give that info
5) does the question require research on my part? -- save until later
6) does the question require so much research that it will take me a long
time because I really don't know this area? -- delete, someone else will
hopefully look into it
Like I said, this is one way that I handle the volume of email that comes through. A few months ago I had the time to do more research to answer problems, now that's not the case. In fact it's one reason why we have a great support team, some issues take time to answer, Macromedia provides resources for providing those answers (and doing the research) that aren't easily done by folks like me.
With that said let me also re-iterate that it is NEVER cool to mail a MM
employee off-list to ask for help unless you've been specifically invited or
you are mailing your support engineer. If I have an answer to a question I
will do it on flexcoders when I have time. We all understand that people
have deadlines and I feel bad when I can't respond quickly. But we offer
our 2-hour turnaround Gold support for a reason :-)
OK, moving on:
2) A few questions have come up over the last few weeks regarding issues
with Loaders (specifically when something is loaded functionality breaks
compared to when it was not loaded). I don't have much to offer
unfortunately other than to say there are lots of known issues when using
loaded content :-)
For example, the cursor problem that we found last week turned out to be a
known issue that we had in the release notes (don't look at me to blame you
for not reading them, I didn't remember to check). The DragManager problem
discussed last night also is apparently a known issue but I'm not sure
there's a release note.
The big thing to know is that static classes (things like CursorManager and
DragManager) can be negatively affected by using the Loader to load
additional MXML applications. There will be bugs, and while there may be
people from Macromedia who know how to workaround the issues, I am not one
of them and see #1 for why you may not receive answers from others :-) Best
thing to do is always remember to check the release notes and search
macromedia.com for technotes and other articles. And then be wary when
working with loaded MXML applications!
3) My view on the state of flexcoders:
It's strong, it's great, I'm loving it! I am thrilled to see so many people
asking questions and so many people answering them. It means we have great
users (and I admit that it is a new experience for me given products I
worked on at previous companies). I am excited to see people discussing
architecture, coming up with multiple answers to the same problem, sharing
ideas, and in general working to improve the quality of code produced by
all.
At the same time I think there are some technical improvements that could be
made to make all of our lives easier.
1) flexcoders searching is horrible. We all know it, and it's a detriment
for many people because folks come in and ask common questions simply
because search won't show it has being asked and answered before. I don't
think mailing Yahoo and asking them to improve search is going to do much
for us, but if there are people who have ideas on how to improve things I
think you should share and perhaps try to contribute. Exposing the RSS to
Google didn't seem to make a difference, I know I've run searches for
messages that I know exist and Google blanks. Moving flexcoders to another
listserv is not gonna be acceptable right now since so many people know the
location, and creating a competing list doesn't make much sense either. But
finding some different/better way to archive these messages would be good.
This is a call for volunteers (actually a call for you to offer your
services to Steven and Ali who are the moderators).
2) Macromedia has a number of "Getting Started" resources listed on the web
site, but I'm not sure that everyone takes the time to read them, and maybe
they don't fully know where to go. We also have a number of people taking
issues and putting them on their own sites (cflex.net, flexauthority) and
these are great resources for people to search as they're getting up to
speed. Flexcoders isn't a forum, so there isn't a concept of "sticky"
posts, but I think it would be helpful if you guys came up with a good list
of "getting started" resources including FAQs and reference sites and posted
them to the list occasionally for new users. Some newsgroups and mailing
lists have the auto-posted FAQs, maybe someone would want to take on that
task here?
Finally I just want to commend everyone for being such good community
members. I think the folks who post have been unfailingly polite and we
don't see flame-wars, coding-religion wars, and other kinds of posts that
turn people off from these kinds of developer lists. I hope that everyone
will continue to ask questions and answer what you can and in doing so help
us make Flex as successful as possible. Do your part to help others now and
give the Macromedia folks the opportunity to create something even better
for you in the coming months.
Matt
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