Flash Builder 4 — Defective By Design? 66
ApolloX writes "Adobe has released its new version of the Flex Builder, now renamed Flash Builder 4. This version is radically different from previous versions of Flex, introducing the new Spark architecture and theme support. While I am pleased Adobe has finally added support for Eclipse 3.5, I am disappointed with some of the new architecture changes that make doing simple things, such as skinning a button, now quite cumbersome."
Anon Coward too lazy to go find old account on /. (Score:1, Insightful)
Flash is a "good enough" technology for me. It does what I want (some flash games and streaming video), It has become the defacto-standard in online streaming, which is nice for 99% of users because they only have to install flash once and they are done.
The main "issue" I have with flash, is that it closed source (unless i'm completely off base) and closed API (again unless i'm completely off base), but thats not really a problem since adobe does make flash creation suite that is pretty powerful form what I can tell
I've never taken a Flash Design course that our department offers (for IT majors, I'm CS) but the two reasons why I think flash will start to see issues arising for it soon is not to do with closed source or any other ideology talking point like that, are:
1 ) bad UI experience for touchscreen users (the flash code out there would need recompiled, but I don't see why it couldn't add in "let me know if you are a touch screen or not, or some other weird interface" flag, and then have different branches of UI logic for different input/output methodologies
2 ) add in user-privacy rights management (this is finally being addressed in the next version) since that paper on 'zombie cookies' (disclaimer: I was semi-involved with that paper, so I saw how bad it really was) and how the big tracking sites use flash to store cookies and re-generate html cookies after a user self-deletes them, but I somehow doubt the new updated features will be enough for what people really would want for privacy. (and if not "want" then "need"/"deserve")
Flash Builder 4 — Defective By Design? (Score:1, Insightful)
Well, yes. It is flash after all.