* * * * *

                      Too much Flash, not much substance

More work with Flash 5 [1] for the web project I'm working on. I headed over
to Rob's house (the graphic designer) and ended up finding the entire
experience very frustrating—I don't like IDEs (Integrated Development
Environments) very much and the metaphore that Flash uses for development is
very confusing to me.

There doesn't seem to be a beginning or ending to the creation.

I mean, there probably is one, but the manual isn't exactly clear on
anything. For instance, the _root object is an alias for the current layer,
say _layer0, you are working on. But while the language manual lists _layer0,
_layer1, _layer2, etc, you can't actually refer to them as such.

What the?

Another problem: we want to automate the creation of dynamic text objects yet
it's not very clear how you do that, if you indeed can. Nor is it very clear
that you can create arrays out of anything other than simple types like
integers or strings.

While the scripting language might seem adequate to a graphic artist, to a
programmer it's very limiting and annoying. I know how this stuff should work
yet the scripting language seems very ad-hoc and tacked on. Which it is to a
degree.

But the environment gets in the way of my creative endevours.

[1] http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/

Email author at [email protected]