Comments on: I learned to program in Flash

By: Jason

Jason — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:21:42 +0000

@Carpenters Apprentice: I agree with the moral of the story… AND I believe it applies to both sides. Those of us that learned to program in Flash should accept that people will (and should) come from other backgrounds into “our world”. However, the other side of that coin is that those that are coming into Flash should not expect it to be exactly the same as what they are used to. It would be like carpenter #2 saying, “I bought this saw, but I hate it because I can’t hammer a nail with it… and why isn’t there a claw on this thing so I can pull those nails back out?!? This is all wrong and really messed up.”

@Matt:

By: Carpenters Apprentice

Carpenters Apprentice — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 17:50:21 +0000

I find programmers to be a lot like carpenters. We use tools, blueprints, and processes to build things. With that in mind, here’s a little tale.

“A Carpenters Fable”
Once upon a time, in a far away land there were two young carpenters new to their chosen profession.

One carpenter’s tool of choice was the screwdriver, while the other chose a hammer. Both of the carpenters excelled with their tools, learning the advantages of their selected tool. They each spent the first year of their apprenticeship specializing in their tool.

But apprenticeships last many years and throughout that time a variety of tasks emerged that were better suited for other tools. The second carpenter quickly realized that cutting wood with a saw was much easier than bashing it in two with his hammer so he soon purchased a saw and placed it in his tool chest.

However, the first carpenter, after spending so much time with his screwdriver was convinced that chiseling away the wood in two with his screwdriver was just as effective, if not more so, than a saw. As a result, he kept his screwdriver and simply learned more effective ways of cleaving wood in two with a screwdriver. In fact he boasted to the kingdom that a saw could never tighten screws like his screwdriver could, therefore it was inferior.

Then came the day when the King was looking for someone to build his new castle. He put forth a contest to select who would build this castle. The carpenter who could build the most impressive stable for his royal horses would win the job.

The contest began and the first carpenter chiseled and assembled his stable. He shouted to the kingdom that screws were much more secure than nails, wrenches were unnecessary because nuts were something you ate, not something you built with. While the second carpenter built his stable with a toolbox including a wrench, a saw, a hammer, and even a screwdriver.

When they were done, the king examined the two stables.

The first carpenter’s stable was sturdy, held together by a multitude of screws and wood. But it lacked esthetics. It’s edges were jagged and splintered and it took him so long to build that he didn’t have time to paint it.

The second carpenter’s stable was a work of art. It featured smoothly beveled edges and intricately lathed railings.

The king’s decision was clear. The second carpenter was selected to build the castle and he build the grandest castle the kingdom had ever known.

The End.

Moral of the story, be a good programmer and keep your mind open to the possibilities other technologies bring. Otherwise, you’re just screwing yourself.

By: Matt Schmulen

Matt Schmulen — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 03:04:02 +0000

By: Randall W. Haws

Randall W. Haws — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 21:20:53 +0000

My own background came from Visual Basic (and VBA) background in the first 1996/1997 release of the Microsoft Office Empire. It was difficult to learn, but after a couple years, I made great progress with what I was able to pick up and learn. I started developing in Flash when in April 1998 and have never looked back. I did very little coding or programming through version 4/5 of Flash.
From my perspective, I hated programming in Flash until Flash 6/MX and here’s why. It conflicted with my habits and practices from the Visual Basic world (which was more structured and well thought out and so on) so I didn’t pursue “real” programming in Flash until it came up to par with my level of understanding to make the transition from Visual Basic to ActionScript.
The difference between me and the typical hard-core JAVA or C# C++ developer is that I know my own weaknesses and this is where I gain my overall strength. I knew not to get involved with Flash in version 4/5 at a programmatic level until it evolved to a level where a transition was feasible and beneficial to my bottom line. I never was a hard-core Visual Basic programmer, but I had my days of enjoyed successes and have had even more years of horrible failures. The problem with hard-core programmers entering the Flash world now with the AS3 movement is that many of the aspects of things that are most important to these hard-core programmers are hidden because of their simplicity and familiarity. They simply don’t know Flash. They don’t have years and years of working in Flash through all of its evolution. And for them to expect to know Flash now, well, maybe they should reconsider their transition to Flash. These hard-core programmers need to decorate their imagination a bit more, get up to speed on the fundamentals of Flash, from AS1, AS2, and now AS3. They need to realize there are limitations and things missing in Flash AS3 and that’s why we have workarounds and hacks and try not to have 142 class files to show a simple homepage with 5 buttons and some content.
A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that works. These hard-core dudes need to learn the simple systems in Flash first, before moving on to the complex systems they crank out in their native programming languages. If a current system has evolved from anything other than a simple system, the complexity of evolving the current system will be to complex. Look, people’s behavior makes perfect sense if you think about it in terms of their goals, needs, and motives.
No matter how beautiful the strategy or design pattern, one should occasionally look at the results. For us Flash developers to remain constant in happiness and wisdom through increasing our knowledge, we must often change. If I seem superhuman, I have been misunderstood.

By: John Dalziel

John Dalziel — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:31:53 +0000

The big strength of the Flash community is it’s a melting pot. Flash people come from many different backgrounds, and each bring some of that previous experience to the party. “Real programmers” bring their software engineering skills, but in the Flash world those ideas or no more or less valuable that say storytelling, editing, or the “double-bounce” walk! Flash is cross-discipline and inclusive. That’s why it’s still fun after all these years