Here are some random thoughts on the topics in Flex Community Feedback meeting. I wasn't able to attend but was able to watch the video.
These are the most pressing issues with Flex development and I have to speak my mind on this so we can come up with solutions: Fixing Bugs IMHO The number one frustrating thing for me in Flex development is when I'm working on a project and I come across a bug I can't fix myself. What we are supposed to do is to submit a bug report. At first I thought I was doing something good when I submitted over 60 bugs in the Flex 3 beta over almost 2 years ago. I watched as 99% of them were deferred or closed. I thought it was just me but it wasn't. Now as Flex 4 or Flex 5 is getting reviewed all the bugs have been opened again and now they are getting closed one after another in the same closed process as before. This tells me, "my issues aren't important to adobe" and not having the access to Flex Builder or the Flash Player and not having the in-depth training of the SDK they will never get fixed! <RANT - do not read> Voting might have been a good idea at the start but now it is very clear that this is DOES NOT WORK because issues that don't get enough votes will NEVER get fixed. I thought that with the voting system the highest voted bugs would get fixed first and then the remaining bugs would get fixed after that but that is NOT THE CASE. Bugs are NEVER getting fixed. Listen, bugs HAVE to get fixed! In my software and my projects if I have a bug I fix it! I don't close it, I'm not going to debate about if I should fix it, I don't have the community vote on *if* it should get fixed, I FIX IT!!! And when people depend on software or an SDK as the foundation of a project you fix the bugs. I've worked at numerous software companies, Roxio, Parsons Technology, Intuit, Yellowbook and I've run my own software company for many years and we support our users by fixing the bugs as fast as we can. With features its different but with bugs in software people depend on it is a rule they have to get fixed. <RANT> IMHO Voting should promote bugs but not defer them and NEVER close them. When you close a bug it actually feels like someone is closing my project (and some of my projects have been my dreams - sniff sniff). It feels like I'm getting punched in the nuts. I have a suggestion. Put someone, just one person, or a group of developers together and go through and fix the bugs one by one irregardless of votes or if it fits in the roadmap. If these can be addressed by the community than great. Leverage that. Put that list of bugs up on a page so we can see where they are and track their progress. But be aware that the community can't help if it has to do with the Flash Player, Flash Catalyst or Flex Builder. What options do we have for this? More in depth Training The community can't help if there isn't the education on the inner workings of the framework. Community Involvement I think the open initiative is a good start. So let's say we want a better rich text editor in the next version of Flex. How do we do this? How do we make it happen? Best Regards, - j
