Flash Tenth Anniversary

 

In honor of the tenth anniversary of Flash, we asked 10 Flash developers from around the world to tell us how Flash has made an impact on their personal and professional lives. Answering 10 questions each, they relate how they learned what they know today about the technology, how they've used it in the past and how they use it today, which features they love most, how Flash has enhanced their creativity, what lessons Flash has taught them—and which tip they'd like to pass on to other developers—and, finally, what the future holds for Flash in the coming decade.

We know that complications arise when labeling people (or asking them to label themselves) as "designers" or "developers." The people profiled here identify as developers but may also have an interest in design. To read what self-identified designers have to say about their history with Flash, check out the Design Center's companion piece for even more interesting perspectives on this most amazing software.

Andreas Heim

Years of Flash experience: 8

How did you get started in Flash?

The year was 1998 and I was learning Macromedia Director for a school project, an edutainment CD-ROM. At the time, I was looking for an internship related to animation. I ended up finding Smashing Ideas, which was using Flash for their website and had used it to create cartoons. They asked me to check out the public beta of Flash 3 to prepare myself for the internship. When I arrived in Seattle, they showed me the ropes. Glenn Thomas, in particular, became my mentor in the use of Flash's interactive capabilities. That consisted mainly of gotoAndStop but it was enough to build simple games.

I have never looked back. I've made a living using Flash ever since. What I know about Flash today is from years of experience, some very helpful insights from the Flash engineers, and the Flash community through blogs, articles, and books.

How have you used Flash in the past and how do you use it today?

Things certainly have changed a lot since I started using Flash. Back then, in Flash 3 and even Flash 4, you had to click scripts together using a pop-up menu. There was no text editor. I learned to use a Wacom tablet—first to draw, which really wasn't my strength, and then also to program. As I have improved my scripting capabilities, I have found myself spending less and less time directly in the Flash authoring environment and more time working in an external code editor after setting up a file initially and passing it off to a designer. Yet Flash Player is still what makes all of our work possible.

What does Flash mean to you personally?

Flash has played a rather significant role in my personal life ever since I first got in touch with it. For starters, I moved across the globe for it—from Stuttgart, Germany, to Seattle, Washington, where I also found my wife. Over the years I have met a number of great people through Flash who became dear friends. I also got to travel to areas of the world most people only dream about. My favorite memory is traveling to Australia in 2000 for the Paralympic Games in Sydney.

What does Flash mean to you professionally?

My entire career so far is basically based on Flash. I started as an intern in 1998 when Flash started to walk. I'm still with the same company, Smashing Ideas. Back then they had just moved out of a basement into an office. Now we have over 50 employees, and I'm overseeing a team of 10 Flash developers. Flash has enabled me to express my creativity and work with the most talented people in a place that's like a family. What more could you ask for?

What has Flash taught you about software development and the web?

Personally, the most important thing that Flash has taught me is that it can actually be fun to be a developer. I had picked up some programming skills early on, but I really wasn't looking forward to the prospect and daily life of being a "corporate developer." With Flash, I can enjoy the creative output and work with great artists, not against them.

A great user experience starts when people who visit a website are easily able to complete the task for which they came—and then want to come back for more. In my eyes, Flash is by far the best tool to create these experiences. Yes, Flash has been abused (remember "skip intro"?) but it was also the first, to my knowledge, to take advantage of one of the core behaviors of the web—the progressive (then called "streaming") download.

It is important to give users quick visual feedback that something is happening once they click on something. Even as broadband becomes more predominant than before, the ability to see things happening very quickly and be able to interact with them is one of those things that Flash "got" from the beginning—and enabled it to transform the web into what it is today.

Which feature(s) of Flash amazed you the most, and why?

It's hard to pick a favorite feature because there are so many! In the beginning it was certainly the ability to show rich content quickly. When basic scripting capabilities were introduced in Flash 4, I was incredibly amazed by the new opportunities.

Looking back now and comparing those features available just the blink of an eye ago to what we have now may seem silly, but in "Internet years" and my personal years, that was quite an amazing milestone. Since then, the most outstanding feature has been the addition of video. There was video online before, but it was never fully integrated with the experience. Especially now that we can have transparent video, there are so many more creative options to choose from.

How has Flash enhanced your creativity?

Flash has always challenged me to work within constraints and to beat them to create things that were thought impossible. Constraints such as limited file sizes and low processing performance forced us to stay focused and become ingenious. With the mobile frontier and Flash Lite now upon us, I see history repeating itself: How can I create something compelling with something so little?

Being able to visualize a creative vision quickly has helped us tremendously over the years. It helps both developers and designers to see and check their progress, and make changes as necessary. This gives us the freedom to try different things, and pick the best one, rather than settling on one idea and not knowing what it will look like until it's complete.

What's your favorite Flash tip or lesson?

"When in doubt, wait a frame." I'm not sure who coined that phrase but for as long as I've been programming in Flash, it still often proves to be the solution to an inexplicable problem.

Or "_root is the source of all evil." I'm also not sure who first said that. Basically, _root looks convenient when you first start programming in Flash but it can quickly turn into a nightmare because _root can change.

What cautionary tale can you relate to other developers?

Today Flash has so many features, it is much faster, and a lot of people have broadband. It's easy to forget that there are still constraints when you start out a project. You run into them as soon as you're almost done. We just had that happen to us. We were ready to deliver a project, but it had ballooned to 3 MB and everything had to be loaded upfront. It couldn't go live like that, so we had to re-engineer it to modularize the content and load it piece by piece. Load management, as painful as it can be, is still very essential for developing engaging content that users will actually see.

Where will Flash be 10 years?

Ten years from now I believe that Flash will truly be ubiquitous, not just on the web but in many aspects of daily life. Chances are high that for any device and screen you interact with, you'll be dealing with Flash. As Flash runs on more and more devices and platforms, including Linux, it won't really matter any more to the end user what powers their favorite content because it will run essentially everywhere. As content creators, we have truly become cross-platform developers.

One thing will not change, though: We'll still be out there working to create better experiences using Flash.

Aral Balkan

Years of Flash experience: 7

How did you get started in Flash?

I was brought in to work on my first Flash project because I knew how to program. I discovered quickly that I could reuse my knowledge of multimedia authoring with Director, and motion graphics with After Effects and Photoshop, and apply it to Flash.

Although I am mostly self-taught, I learned a great deal from Charlie Cordova and Branden Hall, Katherine Ulrich's Flash Visual QuickStart Guide, Lynda Weinman's Flash HOT books, and of course Colin Moock's ActionScript: The Definitive Guide. Sham Bhangal's Flash MX Upgrade Essentials was also invaluable in making the leap from Flash 5 to Flash MX a seamless one.

I also learned from the Flash community on Flashcoders—and elsewhere—who continue to share their time, code, and expertise generously with others on a daily basis.

How have you used Flash in the past and how do you use it today?

I started using Flash to add interactivity to linear presentations for clients like Accenture. From there, I worked with Branden Hall and Charlie Cordova on creating a virtual school in Flash 5. It was definitely the world's first virtual school and most probably the world's first real rich Internet application (RIA).

That propelled me into the world of RIAs and I created an open-source, pattern-based framework for RIA development called Arp that is being used around the world to create Flash and Flex applications. I've used Flash and Flex to create RIAs and online experiences for numerous clients. Today I write, present, and teach a series of courses that I've authored on Flash and Flex.

What does Flash mean to you personally?

I have always had a Jekyll and Hyde relationship between the part of me that is the outgoing stage personality—the actor, the designer, the director—and my hidden, geekier side. I fell in love with both theater and computers at around the same age, when I was seven. This is when I started programming and when I first wrote, directed, and acted in a play. Later I went on to study film and multimedia during my undergraduate and graduate degrees. With Flash I was finally able to bring all of my various passions together.

Flash gives me a virtual stage on which I can combine my skills in production, motion graphics, graphic design, interactive design, and programming. Beyond this I was lucky enough first to discover and then to become part of the amazing community that exists in the Flash world. Today I coordinate OSFlash, home of the open-source Flash community, and I'm honored to interact with some of the brightest and most creative minds in our community on a daily basis.

What does Flash mean to you professionally?

Professionally, Flash has meant that I was able to take part in building the world's first virtual school and that, today, I can work with the prime minister's office here in the UK to put a virtual 10 Downing Street on the web. In between, it has meant that I got the chance to work on exciting, cutting-edge Internet projects and share my knowledge through the books I've contributed to, my own training courses, and the various talks I give at international conferences.

What has Flash taught you about software development and the web?

Flash has taught me that web development can be fun! Not having to worry about cross-platform issues when creating web applications makes a world of difference. It's just a simple matter of quality of life: Your development tools and workflow determine how much fun (or frustration) to have on a daily basis. Especially now with Flex 2, it is utter joy to develop on the Flash platform.

Which feature(s) of Flash amazed you the most, and why?

The most amazing features in Flash currently are alpha channel video and the various bitmap features. They allow developers to create, in real time, the sort of motion graphics that were previously possible only through prerendering in After Effects or Photoshop combined with tedious frame-by-frame rotoscoping.

I'm also amazed by the real-time collaborative and communicative features in Flash.

The most amazing thing in the Flash platform currently, though, is Flex 2. I am absolutely in love with Flex Builder 2, ActionScript 3.0, and the Flex 2 framework. They have actually improved my daily level of happiness! They are a joy to work with.

How has Flash enhanced your creativity?

Flash is my paintbrush, my microphone, my stage. It allows me to create and, even more importantly, immediately share my creations with the world.

What's your favorite Flash tip or lesson?

Two simple decisions, made at the very beginning of a project, have the most significance in determining its eventual outcome: The first is which development process, if any, you decide to use. The second is deciding on the architecture of your application.

Regarding development process, I would urge developers to read up on Agile Development methodologies and Human Computer Interaction in general, and eXtreme Programming (XP) and User-Centered Product Development (UCPD) in particular. A combination of XP and UCPD—a process I call User-Centered Agile Product Development (UCAPD)—that combines the project management and software engineering expertise of XP with the focus on usability and user testing of UCPD will lower the risks of your development while improving the daily welfare of your team.

When it comes to architecture, I would highly recommend that developers research design patterns and look into Arp—my own open-source, pattern-based framework—for creating applications on the Flash platform. Arp allows you to develop maintainable, scalable applications using established design patterns implemented in both ActionScript 2.0 and ActionScript 3.0. With Arp you can architect each one of your applications in exactly the same way, regardless of whether you are using the Flash authoring environment, MTASC, Flex 1.5, or Flex 2.

What cautionary tale can you relate to other developers?

Stop thinking about doing it and do it! The worst thing you can do is let your perfectionism get in the way of actually making things. Make something, put it out there, and then evolve it.

Where will Flash be 10 years?

The potential for the Flash platform, following Macromedia's merger with Adobe, is virtually limitless.

In the next 10 years, the Flash platform will move beyond the browser to become a standard content and application delivery platform for occasionally connected, mobile, and desktop applications. The evolution of tools such as the Flash authoring environment and Flex, combined with the Adobe range of products such as Photoshop and After Effects, will provide developers with an even more elegant and integrated toolset and workflow for content and application authoring than we have today. With the growth of broadband penetration, we will see the Flash Player gain new features such as hardware-accelerated 3D support and advanced real-time video and sound manipulation—some of which we are already seeing in the latest versions.

As far as rich Internet applications and occasionally connected applications are concerned, we will see a mass exodus as Ajax developers embrace the cross-platform support, simpler workflow, and elegant toolset provided by Flex. Already there is much interest in the Flash platform from the traditional web application community and developers are starting to realize that Flash has moved on considerably from its humble roots 10 years ago as an animation package. Myths are being shattered daily as the Flash platform grows from strength to strength with massive improvements in the areas of accessibility, performance, and development workflow. (As I write this, an open-source solution called FlashAid that I authored with web-standards guru Jeremy Keith helps make Ajax more accessible by using the accessibility features in Flash Player.)

Open source will continue to play a very important role in bringing the brightest minds to the Flash platform, and we will see the growth and maturation of open-source tools and servers to complement the commercial offerings by Adobe and other vendors. These open-source products will also increase the adoption of Flash in the creation of communication and e-learning initiatives in third-world countries. Eventually, as the Flash platform reaches a certain level of maturity, we may even see open sourcing of Flash Player and Flash becoming a truly open standard.

Flash has the potential to become the universal runtime and make differences among operating systems and platforms irrelevant. In the next 10 years, Flash will fully realize this dream.

Colin Moock

Years of Flash experience: 10

How did you get started in Flash?

It was 1995. I was in graduate school at the University of Waterloo studying English literature. Before grad school, I used a computer mostly to create Microsoft Word documents and play games (lots of games). Once in grad school I got access to networks, e-mail, NNTP, MUDs, and the web—and I was hooked. I loved everything about social computing. My girlfriend showed me how to make a simple web page, and that led to working on the university website.

One of my professors heard that I was into HTML and passed my name on to a company named SoftQuad, makers of an HTML editor called HoTMetaL. They needed help with their website, so I joined to help work on it.

SoftQuad was pretty serious about the technology. They had people sitting on the W3C and were involved with directing the evolution of SGML, HTML, and XML. One day, while working for SoftQuad, I received an e-mail from FutureWave Software—makers of FutureSplash, which would later become Flash—wanting to know if they could send me a complimentary copy of FutureSplash. They wanted SoftQuad to consider deploying their plug-in on our website. I installed the program and played with it—I always had an interest in art and animation, so it seemed kind of fun. But at the time, I didn't want to force a plug-in installation on our website's users, so I roundly turned them down.

I wish I still had that e-mail!

How have you used Flash in the past and how do you use it today?

I came to Flash without much programming experience. I had dabbled a bit in BASIC, Perl, HTML, and JavaScript but I didn't have a computer science degree or any formal training. I approached it more as a designer and as an artist/animator.

But I had to solve some programming problems, even in Flash 2. The first major programming problem I faced in Flash was launching a pop-up window from a Flash movie. There was no information available about how to do that at all. I went through all sorts of tricks with JavaScript to try to get it to work properly. It's easy now but at the time it seemed like a big deal. That kind of triggered an interest in the possibility of integrating code with the animation side of things, and so I became more interested in programming. There was a freedom to "doing it yourself" instead of relying on a programmer to do it for you.

When Flash 4 came out, everyone was creating dynamic art and generative interfaces. All of a sudden those kinds of tasks were approachable because they came in a designer's environment. I didn't have to learn C++. I didn't have to get a computer science degree to make some programmatic content appear onscreen. As I got more and more interested in what was possible, I started specializing more in programming.

In the days of Flash 4 and 5, I was working at an agency called ICE where I ended up programming quite a lot for client projects. At the same time, I started writing books for O'Reilly about programming in Flash, so I had to give myself a crash course in computer science for the sake of writing about ActionScript.

By the time Flash 6 was released, I stopped doing client work and focused entirely on ActionScript research and personal projects. That is where I am today. I spend maybe 70% of my time writing books that explain ActionScript programming. I don't even talk about the Flash authoring tool anymore; I just focus on the language. The other 30% of the time I get to play with code and ideas, mostly in multiuser environments.

What does Flash mean to you personally?

On a personal level, I've met a lot of extraordinary people all over the world, and I've made many close friends. Because Flash combines so many disciplines, the Flash community is full of people with really interesting and diverse backgrounds. There seems to be a kindred spirit running through it; we're all problem solvers and inventors.

On another level, through Flash I can share and explore ideas. For example, my website, moock.org, gives me a place to obsess over minutiae with other Flash programmers. It also offers an environment for experiments in multiuser artwork. My home page itself is one of those experiments—a multiuser social space that makes people communicate in a way that they haven't communicated before. The amount of effort I would have had to put into creating the same type of computer-based experience in another language, or using other tools, would be too time-consuming for me to consider. I'd have to handcraft so much of the content that it wouldn't be worth it. But with Flash I can do it.

So Flash has been sort of a gateway to exploring my ideas.

What does Flash mean to you professionally?

It's my whole career at this point. Everything I do professionally is explaining Flash or working with Flash. It used to be just one of the many things I would do, one of the skills that I had to offer as a general web developer. Now it's everything.

What has Flash taught you about software development and the web?

Don't get overly stressed about whether the code is clean, or whether you're doing it the best possible way or the most efficient way. If you can get something going, and it's doing what you want it to do, then it's good—it's done.

Flash is about exploring things and producing the content that you want to produce at the level you're at, at that time. No matter what your level of knowledge is, you can always produce something worthwhile. In fact, people just starting out often produce the most interesting content.

In programming, you go through a constant learning cycle where you look back at an old project and think, "I could have done that so much better. And here are all the things I could have improved, and this is what I could have added."

At any given point, you just have to say, "This is what I'm capable of and this is how I'm capable of doing it, and that's good enough." As long as it lets you express what you wanted to express, or build what you wanted to build, then that's all you need to know. You don't need more theories than that.

Which feature(s) of Flash amazed you the most, and why?

Movie clips in Flash 3 was a huge change for me in the way I understood computer science. It moved me toward an understanding of object-oriented programming through visual, tangible content. When you make a movie clip instance, you're creating it from this symbol thing that's a template, exactly as you create objects from classes in object-oriented programming.

In Flash 2 you drew on one frame and you changed things on the next frame, and that made animation. But in Flash 3, when movie clips came around, you could create animations as these little reusable modules called movie clips. That was very different than what a paper-based animator could do, and it helped me move from traditional animation to generating programmatic content.

Another big Flash feature for me was XML sockets because it opened up the multiuser world to me.

How has Flash enhanced your creativity?

Flash hasn't given me more creativity, but it has allowed me to follow up on the creative ideas I've had.

Using Flash feels almost like carpentry: You build up these little widgets like a mad scientist or inventor who's carving little robots out of wood. It has this very hands-on, physical builder's appeal to it, and that was good for me.

I'm not much of a mathematician, so when I program I depend on building logical systems more than raw mathematical skill. Flash is a builder's world that I understood, so it helped me express ideas on a computer that I might not have been able to produce otherwise.

What's your favorite Flash tip or lesson?

Get your project scope signed in writing—and save often!

What cautionary tale can you relate to other developers?

Flash is great at doing many things but, like every environment, it has its limitations. Don't try to make Flash do something it can't. Set the scope of your projects to suit the limitations of the target environment.

Where will Flash be 10 years?

There are two sides to that question. First, what's going to happen to Flash Player? Second, what's going to happen to the Flash authoring environment?

As for Flash Player, I think it has achieved so much momentum that in 10 years it will be used on many nondesktop devices—ones that don't require a heavy-duty operating system, like cameras—or in control panels for home security systems or in-car navigation systems. Those systems might run Flash Player as a kind of miniature operating system that interfaces with the hardware.

In the desktop world—that is, the web-browser plug-in and future desktop player—the future seems less certain to me. It depends on how quickly Microsoft moves in on the territory. On the desktop, Flash succeeds because it gives users the "rich experience" (motion graphics, branded interface) that they don't get from the operating system. Flash is basically a preview of what a lot of desktop computing experiences really should be like. Hence, I imagine Windows, Mac OS, and Linux will eventually natively provide everything that Flash provides, but at the operating-system level.

That said, 10 years is really the short run. Longer term, I think that even using a web browser or a desktop computer as a means of interacting with the content on the Internet is, itself, something that will disappear. Matt Nagle's grandkids will think it was "quaint." After that—well, you've seen The Matrix, right? Conversations about the future of computing get dark pretty fast for me.

OK, back to 2006. The Flash authoring tool is the other side of the question. There are quite a few animation tools on the market, and there are many programming tools. But there aren't very many development tools that let you combine those disciplines the way Flash does. With development tools being what they are today, including Flash, it takes a lot of work to make a beautifully handcrafted, unique, custom-designed interface, or a custom-designed game or marketing piece. I think the future of Flash depends on its ability as an authoring tool to improve on that enterprise of creating the rich experience. Animation on its own is not unique, and programming is not unique, but I think where those two cross paths is incredibly important territory. Authoring tools like Flash are just starting to address that union. Flash has inspired such creativity and exploration because it brought those two worlds together.

Now that ActionScript 3.0 and Flex Builder 2 have brought traditional programming tools to the Flash world, I hope Adobe can put renewed energy into the development of Flash as a tool for creating rich content.

Darron Schall

Years of Flash experience: 5

How did you get started in Flash?

I got started in Flash by accident. During my tenure at Lehigh University, I was granted an internship at Binney & Smith, the makers of the Crayola brand. The purpose of the internship was to build Internet applications using ColdFusion. Flash wasn't anywhere in the picture.

As it happens, the team I was assigned to was a hybrid team of designers, illustrators, and developers. The designers had just come out of Flash training in New York City and were eager to use what they learned in their projects. Because I was an HTML guy at the time and knew JavaScript fairly well, I fielded questions from designers about how to accomplish certain things in Flash using ActionScript. I had no idea what a movie clip was or how the Timeline worked, but ActionScript was close enough to JavaScript that I was able to answer their questions pretty well.

Eventually, as I started to answer more questions and became more invested in the projects, I transitioned into an ActionScript developer role. Projects would be split between the designers and myself, with the ActionScript burden falling on my lap and the design falling on theirs.

I learned the ins and outs of Flash by attaching myself to the designers on the team. They taught me movie clips, the Timeline, sound, and so on. I knew JavaScript fairly well so ActionScript was easy to pick up. Using it in the trenches every day helped to hone my skill set. When I got stuck, I turned to mailing lists and forums for support.

My college courses helped me from a general programming, logic, and theory standpoint, but I'm mainly self-taught and have tried to follow the paths of those who came before me.

How have you used Flash in the past and how do you use it today?

Much of my early Flash work was dedicated to creating online content for children. Because we were part of the Crayola brand, we did a lot of work creating engaging online experiences for kids that could be taken offline using some sort of "print and color" functionality. Typically the work manifested itself as online games. At the end of the game you could print out a coloring sheet that showed your high score and name on it, and then hang it on the fridge for mom and dad to see.

As my skills improved, the complexity of the games grew as well. I remember creating a "jump and run" platform game engine that we reused to create eight different games for a pretty big online promotion. During the testing, one of the responses I remember hearing was, "This is just like PlayStation!" By today's standards, this wasn't anything exciting, but at the time it was pretty innovative stuff and we were proud to be pushing Flash like that.

Eventually, I moved out of the games world and started to get into forms-based application building. As application development with Flash was progressing, so was I as a software architect. I remember the RIA growing pains of Flash 7, the v2 component problems, and the introduction of Flex. At first I was turned off by Flex because it didn't sit well with me and my Flash roots. Eventually I came around, and now I'm spending my days building mostly forms-based applications in Flex 2.

What does Flash mean to you personally?

Personally, Flash has made programming more interesting to me and has given me a fun and rewarding hobby. Additionally, Flash has helped me meet many great people along the way. A lot of the friends I have today are people I've met at various Flash-related events, or people I've met through online Flash communities. The Flash community is jam-packed with amazing people, and I'm happy and proud to be a part of it.

What does Flash mean to you professionally?

My entire professional career exists because of Flash. I wouldn't be where I am today without it. Flash has really helped me evolve as a programmer, and I feel that I came into Flash and ActionScript at the perfect time. I was still in college on my computer science track when Flash 5 was released and ActionScript was officially born.

As ActionScript has grown and matured, so too have my own skills. I'm building applications today that I never would've dreamed about just five years ago. That's a testament to how far Flash has come and how it has brought me along for the ride.

What has Flash taught you about software development and the web?

Flash taught me how to play nice on teams—working with illustrators and visual designers to animators and sound technicians or other programmers all on the same project. Good communication and process are essential ingredients for success.

Which feature(s) of Flash amazed you the most, and why?

Flash video is an amazing feature. I'm blown away that they were able to achieve the quality and functionality they did while still keeping the Flash Player download size small. Flash video has revolutionized video on the Internet, reaching a wider audience than any other video format. It seamlessly integrates the video experience with the surrounding page and creates a killer user experience overall, blowing away the competition.

How has Flash enhanced your creativity?

With Flash, anything is possible. I remember falling in love with Flash because it was so easy to take an idea or concept and turn it into something concrete. I've always been somewhat artistically challenged (programming is my art) and Flash removed the barriers I ran into with other programming environments. It enabled me to explore math and algorithms visually with ease. That exploration and discovery has fueled my right brain, making sure my left brain didn't grow disproportionately.

What's your favorite Flash tip or lesson?

When in doubt, wait a frame. If waiting a frame doesn't work, try waiting two frames. Seriously, the key to building things in Flash—especially when using any sort of user interface components—is to just wait a frame if something doesn't work quite right.

If you're trying to interact with an object and it's not having an effect, chances are you haven't given the object enough time to initialize. Look at UIObject.doLater() in Flash 8 or UIComponent.callLater() in Flex 2.

What cautionary tale can you relate to other developers?

Don't be afraid to ask questions when you get stuck or admit that you don't know how to do something. We all have varying levels of pride, but you'll find that the people in and around Flash are some of the most helpful out there and will do their best to get you out of a quandary.

Don't beat your head against your desk trying to figure something out for days and waste precious time when asking for help could lead you to a solution much more effectively.

Where will Flash be 10 years?

The amount of change that Flash has gone through over the past 10 years leads me to believe that the sky is the limit over the next 10. The fact that we have rich, collaborative, multiuser applications like Breeze today—when Flash at its roots was just a vector graphic tool—is pretty incredible. I wouldn't be surprised if at the end of the next 10 years we can say the same thing.

I see Flash continuing to expand into device markets and being on literally every device that requires a user interface. I see native desktop applications being replaced by web-enabled versions that work as well on your desktop as they do on your mobile phone.

I see Flash displays hanging in art galleries, depicting the latest creative explorations, right alongside oil painting and sculptures.

Most important of all, I see Flash on 64-bit Linux. Maybe by then, it'll even be 128-bit Linux.

Grant Skinner

Years of Flash experience: 10 (6 professionally)

How did you get started in Flash?

I toyed with FutureSplash and, later, Flash as animation tools for a couple years without too much interest. When Flash 3 was released, however, it was a revelation. It combined three things that I loved—coding (well, sort of), design, and the Internet—in one very cool package. I initially never even imagined that anyone would actually pay me to do something that was this much fun.

I started playing with Flash in my own time, building out games, fake websites, and visual experiments. This honed my coding skills, built my understanding of the technology, and eventually gained recognition for me in the industry. There's nothing sweeter than becoming successful through playing.

How have you used Flash in the past and how do you use it today?

My early work with Flash focused purely on my own enjoyment of the technology. As such, I built games, experiments, and personal sites—most of which were never seen by anyone, except perhaps a patient girlfriend, parent, or sibling.

As I started working with Flash professionally, I gained a keen interest in the possibilities of building Internet-deployed applications ("RIA" wasn't a term then). After some experimentation, I rolled out a few test cases and was fortunate enough to pick up a number of awards for them.

Now I enjoy the freedom to work in a variety of spaces. I architect and code applications, games, and rich experiences for my company's clients, but I also still do a lot of experimental work, like incomplet.org, for my own enjoyment.

What does Flash mean to you personally?

Personally, Flash has given me a chance to travel, hang out with awesome people from the coolest technology community I have ever encountered, and generally spend way too much time in front of a computer, neglecting the people I love. (*grin*)

What does Flash mean to you professionally?

Flash represents freedom to enjoy my job. Flash has given me the opportunity to maintain a strong professional focus without needing to have a narrow mental focus. I get to learn so many things and exercise so many parts of my brain in my job that I never get bored.

I love the fact that work I do purely for the fun of it can often lead to exciting commercial opportunities!

What has Flash taught you about software development and the web?

Bigger doesn't always mean better. Flash Player is so small and it does so much. I always keep that in mind when I build content. Keep it small, but make it awesome.

Which feature(s) of Flash amazed you the most, and why?

Wow, I don't know; every version has had its kickers. If pressed, I'd have to say that the bitmap features in Flash 8 would have to be the coolest thing added to Flash since variables were added in Flash 4. They open up so many possibilities to make dynamic content look gorgeous, and they are a ton of fun to play with programmatically.

How has Flash enhanced your creativity?

Flash has allowed me to be creative as a coder. I enjoy graphic/motion design even though I don't have formal training in it. Flash lets me apply creative code to get creative design results.

While it takes creativity to code a back end for a financial company, the results are, well, dull to say the least. When I build something with Flash, it can be highly functional but I can show it to your average Joe and he'll think it's cool too!

What's your favorite Flash tip or lesson?

Learn object-oriented programming, even if you're a casual coder. Flash makes so much more sense once you "get" it, and it saves you a ton of time in the long run.

What cautionary tale can you relate to other developers?

Don't hold back, and don't be shy. Build what you love and share it with the world! I built cool stuff for an audience of one for years before I got the courage to show it off. When I finally did, I realized that other people liked my work too. The Flash community can only benefit from more people actively participating.

Where will Flash be 10 years?

Everywhere?

Seriously, Flash is spreading from the Internet onto the desktop (Apollo) and into phones, embedded systems, and appliances. There's just so much opportunity for this technology. The same consumer force that is driving build-to-order running shoes and designer vacuum cleaners is driving the market for rich, personalized software experiences—and Flash is the best technology to deliver them.

Lisa Larson

Years of Flash experience: 7

How did you get started in Flash?

As a classically trained print designer in a small, successful studio in suburban Detroit, I was doing a good deal of work for auto companies. Back in 2000, their agencies were beginning to see the potential of Flash in their online marketing efforts. Luckily for me (and the studio!), I had already begun playing around with Flash in my spare time, learning through online tutorials, examples, books—anywhere I could find inspiration. I was really drawn to the possibilities that Flash was opening up for novice programmers to create interactive experiences.

By 2002 I had successfully expanded the studio's skill set to include websites and interactive projects. But at this point, I was really looking for a way to further my knowledge of programming and web design. After some research, I found an ideal program for me—the International Certificate Program in New Media affiliated with the Rhode Island School of Design. This was a full-time, intensive program that covered both design principles and computer science. Flash was one of the core modules of this program, but I was also exposed to other technologies including 3D modeling, JavaScript, SQL, and processing. This program helped push me over the edge from timeline ActionScripting to the realm of programmer. My relationship with Flash had just matured. 

I now keep up to date by reading blogs, Developer Center articles, FlashCoders mailing lists, and—most valuable to me—my weekly FlashCodersNY meetings. Nothing beats real-time discussions and debates with other developers, especially if they're more experienced than you!

How have you used Flash in the past and how do you use it today?

When I began using Flash, it was used mainly as an animation tool. If I had a dollar for every Flash intro I was asked to make... Well, let's forget about those!

Although I was actually able to discourage my clients from doing those intros early on, it was difficult for them to see Flash as useful for more than just pretty animations. The advent of Flash 6 and ActionScript 2.0, and then video capabilities, finally began to give Flash credibility as a real rich Internet application development tool. Suddenly, even though I was away from the commercial realm for just under a year, the playing field had changed, and changed for the better.

I discovered Flash Communication Server in 2003 and have been enthralled by Flash video ever since.

What does Flash mean to you personally?

Developing in Flash has given me confidence in my skills as a programmer, inspired me to deepen those skills, and encouraged me to keep up with technology. It has offered me the opportunity to work (and socialize) with some amazingly talented individuals in the developer community, a few of whom have become close friends.

What does Flash mean to you professionally?

Flash development has propelled my career forward from traditional print design into a plethora of new technologies. If it weren't for Flash, I might be designing some simple web pages to coordinate with printed marketing efforts but I likely would not have had the gumption to create an entire consumer video surveillance application incorporating Flash Media Server, PHP, XML, and e-commerce!

At gotoGroup we've built our entire business around Flash development. Its debatable whether we chose Flash or Flash chose us. The bottom line is that it ends up being the appropriate solution to a wide range of design problems. Sometimes our clients specifically request Flash (especially for video) but most often they come to us with just a goal in mind. More often than not, that goal is achieved with some usage of Flash.

What has Flash taught you about software development and the web?

Developing for the web can be accessible to individuals at virtually any skill level. Flash allows the power of technology to be put into the hands of creative people. That is one of its greatest accomplishments. It has proven that you do not have to be a computer science whiz to create compelling experiences—although it helps!

Which feature(s) of Flash amazed you the most, and why?

Video. The integration of high-quality video into Flash Player has greatly expanded the use of Flash commercially. This feature alone has made Flash more ubiquitous and more accepted as a viable development platform.

How has Flash enhanced your creativity?

Flash allows me to take a concept further than any other platform would feasibly allow. It gives me a diverse toolbox from which to craft appropriate design solutions. Video, audio, animation, database access, web services, live communication, and virtually anything is possible with only Flash Player on the client side. What other technology gives that kind of power to creativity?

What's your favorite Flash tip or lesson?

Whenever possible, give yourself time to start over.

What cautionary tale can you relate to other developers?

The biggest pitfall I've found myself falling into is underestimating the work/time involved in interactive projects. If a project seems simple, don't expect it to be. If a client seems to know exactly what they want, they usually don't.

"Yes, sure that's possible." "Of course Flash can do that."

It's tempting to think that something that seems simple is truly simple to produce; this can be a costly mistake! Because Flash offers you so many options and possibilities, many more things can go awry. You have a great deal of control over the internal workings of your application, and will have even more responsibility in ActionScript 3.0. Memory management, intelligent preloading, handling dropped connections, and so on—these are all details that you may not consider early on when determining the complexities of a project.

Be overly detailed when quoting Flash work—or any other programming job, for that matter. Project "scope creep" is a dangerous thing. Detail each and every function your application will have (or won't have). Address all possible add-ons or feature enhancements; consider providing a "Chinese menu"–style quote so your client can pick and choose features.

Clear communication upfront is critical. Clients will appreciate your thorough attention to detail, and you'll likely be saving yourself big headaches later on. This step will not only help your client (or boss) understand what their final product will be, but may help you unveil hidden complexities that you may not have initially considered.

Every new project is a learning experience. Detailed quotes and project plans give you a clear curriculum to follow—and keep your lessons from being costly!

Where will Flash be 10 years?

As I see it (dusting off my crystal ball here), in 10 years the Flash platform will appear seamless with the computer's operating system. As Apollo matures, we'll be developing stand-alone applications that integrate with Adobe's other applications and the Internet, fusing technologies ranging from PDF to Breeze.

Flash will be built into every mobile phone, so you'll be able to do everything from remotely controlling the temperature of your refrigerator to playing multiplayer games with your friends, to having a nice video chat with your mom.

With the speed at which the technology is progressing now, this could all feasibly become a reality in less than five years.

Let's get busy.

Mariam Dholkawala

Years of Flash experience: 6

How did you get started in Flash?

It's amusing to think about it today but the reality is that I started working with Flash only coincidentally. I was a hardcore Macromedia Director fan who could never think beyond Lingo. Initially I used Flash to create animated objects and then imported them as sprites into Director. I am talking about the days of Flash 4. While doing this, I realized that it was so much simpler to create and edit graphics in Flash compared to other raster editing tools. Interaction was faster to achieve, too, with no complex syntax, and content performance was good.

I then told myself, "I've been loyal to one tool for nearly two years, and now I have a new tool competing with the first! Can we be a perfect threesome?"

The answer was obviously no! Although Flash 4 scripting was not strong enough to completely satiate a game programmer like me, I loved the feel of the graphics in Flash and the fact that we could create so much more in such small file sizes. So this became the beginning of a never-ending liaison with Flash.

How have you used Flash in the past and how do you use it today?

With the web becoming completely "Flashed," I was compelled to learn Flash for my game development. It also had to do with the demand and supply ratio: my company's clients wanted their games done only in Flash. Luckily Flash 5 released on time and I felt I could hone my programming skills to suit this requirement.

I started learning Flash on my own. The Internet was like a mecca of information for me. I must have purchased a couple of books but browsed through hundreds of websites and downloaded thousands of sample files to learn Flash well. It all helped!

Today I use my Flash skills to develop mostly for mobile devices.

What does Flash mean to you personally?

Flash is a part of my lifeline. It is something like an addiction. Once you get the hang of well-heeled development, you just can't think of another tool to use. I really enjoy working with Flash.

What does Flash mean to you professionally?

My work profile has Flash projects listed in abundance, so that speaks for itself. Flash is very important to me professionally.

Actually, Indiagames is one of the leading mobile and online gaming companies in the world, so Flash figures as a high priority for game development for both these streams. Flash has also helped us win two awards for mobile game development with Cryptic Capers and Acorn Mafia.

What has Flash taught you about software development and the web?

It is amazing to see that Flash can be published for so many different platforms: web, desktop, PDAs, interactive TVs, mobile phones, and other handheld devices. Flash simply scores because of the easiness with which you can prepare content.

I'd like to share an incident with you. I once tried to create an application in Java which required me to move objects along a path. I think it was the most cumbersome task to actually hardcode the values, but this is how Java functions.

I then decided to do the same application in Flash. The task not only got simpler, but development was quicker because Flash provided a complete environment for coding, designing, compiling, and testing. Moreover, the designer and developer could work independently of each other to make minor changes after the application was put together. I found this truly amazing.

Which feature(s) of Flash amazed you the most, and why?

The release of Flash 8 threw designers and developers into a vast field where opportunities for development seem endless. The one thing I really love about Flash 8 is the Filters feature. It allows you to create magnificent, Photoshop-like visual effects not just to vectors but also bitmaps and video. These effects can also be interactive and animated to create a pictorial extravaganza. Truly amazing!

I also like using the Snap feature. It comes in handy most when you need to align graphics or join open strokes.

How has Flash enhanced your creativity?

I think creativity is very subjective, but I would like to mention that Flash has provided me with a great set of tools to translate ideas into a digital canvas to display to a global audience. I mean, a simple circle can be duplicated and each instance can have completely different properties and look unlike the other—and all of this at the cost of one movie clip. Which other tool can offer such great features?

What's your favorite Flash tip or lesson?

Because my projects are mostly mobile-based, I'd like to share a Flash mobile graphic tip.

The most important point to remember for mobile devices is that graphics should have as few nodes as possible. Because screen sizes are small, graphics do not need to be perfectly shaped. In fact, they sometimes look blurred. Instead, you can use straight and angled lines to produce good, sharp output on mobile displays.

For instance, if you're creating an eye for a character that is approximately 80 x 80 pixels or smaller, you can make it a square and yet pass it on as a circle on the device's display. This tip comes in handy even during file optimization.

What cautionary tale can you relate to other developers?

Plan, plan, and plan your project well!

I think most of us start with a clean project but end up cluttering it (hinting at the library!) with unnecessary symbols. Although the unused symbols in the library don't add to the final file size, the sheer mess makes it difficult to search for important symbols.

Where will Flash be 10 years?

In my experience using Flash for six years under the Macromedia flagship, I have seen Flash evolve from a simple, lightweight web animation tool to a rich application development tool.

Now with Adobe's strategies of redefining software and technologies, and setting new standards for delivering content, I can see Flash reaching a new peak with every version release.

I would expect Flash in the coming years to have a dynamic image saving function. I had always wanted to make a Flash card application where a user could drag and drop predefined objects, write text, and then save the card as an image on a location on their desktop.

I would also want to see Flash have vector 3D creation and animation tools. This would save us a lot of time and money purchasing third-party tools.

Finally, I would love to see a feature that makes it possible to convert vector graphics to bitmaps within the Flash authoring environment. This is, of course, bypassing the export and import route.

Sascha Wolter

Years of Flash experience: 9

How did you get started in Flash?

I was studying computer science but I found that I did not care much for programming abstract algorithms in dark basement labs. When I first started working with Macromedia Director 4, I hated it. My computer scientist point of view did not relate with all those movie-related tools. After a while I started to love this "universal Swiss Army knife" for application and multimedia development.

My first experience with Flash 2 was quite similar to that of Director 4. I had to present both at CeBIT—one of the biggest computer expos anywhere—where I got addicted to this cute new tool. Yes, Flash 2 was cute but now with Flash 8 and Flex 2, it has grown up and become much more impressive and even easier to use. Thank you, Macromedia, for making it possible for me to learn and present this amazing technology.

How have you used Flash in the past and how do you use it today?

At first I used Flash as an authoring environment for creating websites, games, ads, and so on. Now there are more and more business solutions I create with Flash, Flex, and Flash Media Server.

What does Flash mean to you personally?

To be honest, Flash is so much a part of my life that I have to treat myself sometimes by not working more than necessary during my spare time (although only if I want to). Otherwise my wife will leave me. She really thinks that Flash is a competitor, which only confirms my assumption that Flash could be female.

What does Flash mean to you professionally?

I definitely have the best job in the world. Flash makes it fun to generate amazing, creative results. It makes it a challenge to create code that performs well. I love to refine a good idea and then create the plan and architecture to implement it. I enjoy teaching and coaching people in using this great technology. I like to write articles and books for people so they can make much better applications and websites than I ever could.

And every time I worry that all of this could become boring, I discover something new and amazing in the Flash universe that I have to explore.

What has Flash taught you about software development and the web?

Everything changes. Nothing stays the same. Flash started as an animation tool (which it still is) and now it is the first choice for business applications—a.k.a. rich Internet applications. Only a few years ago we talked about movies; now we create documents or applications with Flash. Everything seems to get more complex but, actually, only the possibilities really grow. The technology itself stays almost as easy as it ever was.

Which feature(s) of Flash amazed you the most, and why?

The combination of the movie metaphor, design tools, and programming language makes Flash an amazing authoring environment. I can probe things using design tools and refine them with code, or vice versa.

How has Flash enhanced your creativity?

Flash is the most powerful tool I know of to fulfill my ideas easily and absolutely. Sometimes I feel like a musician playing a piano, except that my instrument not only generates sounds, it can integrate all kinds of media, interact with users, and so on.

What's your favorite Flash tip or lesson?

My almost most-important tip is to separate experimenting like a virtuoso from working in a structured format. My first step when working with Flash is to define a structured plan (something like UML). After this, the funny part starts with testing all my ideas before adding them to my structures!

What cautionary tale can you relate to other developers?

I think the biggest mistake most people make is thinking they can be an "expert generalist" in Flash design and Flash programming. Even though it may be fun to design when you are a programmer, and program when you are a designer, I have not met many people who are overwhelmingly good in both areas. It definitely helps to acquire as much general knowledge about the whole Flash ecosystem as possible, but you should learn to specialize.

Where will Flash be 10 years?

I think there will be Flash operating systems or Flash embedded systems which make developing cross-platform applications and content very easy. This includes very powerful APIs and low-level operations for every purpose, such as 3D, sound manipulation, and so on.

But the best of all is the easy use of all these features to fulfill the vision of Web 2.0—or whatever user experiences we will create then.

Shin Matsumura

Years of Flash experience: 7

How did you get started in Flash?

I first learned about Flash in Vancouver, Canada, in 1999 when a friend showed me the website of the famous Flash developer, Yugo Nakamura. I became inspired to learn Flash and enrolled in an advanced Internet development course at Bodwell Internet School. After finishing that course, I got a job doing Flash development in Vancouver. I worked there for two and a half years developing company websites in Flash 5 and making Flash games.

How have you used Flash in the past and how do you use it today?

In Canada I made Flash games and websites using Flash 5. After coming back to Japan, I worked at Bascule making Flash-based promotional websites for cars, mobile phones, movies, and ramen noodles. Now I write books about Flash, develop and teach Flash courses, and develop Flash websites. I recently developed the Japanese website for the film Silent Hill with my friend Minoru Tanaka. I'm currently working on creating blog components in Flash that people can add to their own blogs.

What does Flash mean to you personally?

Flash helped me redirect my life onto a new career path. Before going to Canada and learning about Flash, I worked as a salaryman at a Japanese import/export company, swimming in paperwork every day. I am very happy to have found Flash. It has allowed me to express my ideas and creativity in my work and personal life.

What does Flash mean to you professionally?

I started out as a web developer with Flash skills. As Flash evolved from an animation tool to multimedia software with the introduction of ActionScript and XML support, I learned to bring my skills up to the next level and become a professional Flash game and application developer.

What has Flash taught you about software development and the web?

The web changes very fast. To succeed, you have to show examples of what you can do faster than other people. In other industries, there is secrecy around your techniques. The web is an open forum. We developers have to be open about our ideas and get them out there quickly.

Which feature(s) of Flash amazed you the most, and why?

ActionScript is amazing. When I first started learning Flash, it was just an animation tool. After Flash got ActionScript and the ability to connect to a database, it enabled me to make static content more active and interactive. The database connectivity functionality in Flash opened a new world of possibilities for me.

How has Flash enhanced your creativity?

Flash has helped me develop my ideas quickly and easily. I bring my various types of audio and visual content into Flash and build something quickly that mirrors my ideas. This has made me more productive and has helped me develop my skills and style.

What's your favorite Flash tip or lesson?

Try using the Flash Media Server! In the past I used Flash Communication Server for an avatar-based chat application. This project helped me break the concept of dry, text-only communication. I like to work on projects that lead to more interaction among people.

What cautionary tale can you relate to other developers?

Flash Media Server is great for making interactive content, but you must be careful when choosing a server. One time I built a multiuser action game for which it was crucial that the server could rapidly provide real-time information, such as firing weapons and character responses to other players' actions. My mistake was that I used a cheap server because of my low budget. In the end, the server did not perform well enough and the real-time effect of the game was lost.

Where will Flash be 10 years?

Here in Japan, more and more people are connecting to the Internet using mobile phones. I forecast that in the near future mobile gadgets will become the main access point to the Internet rather than personal computers. When that happens, Flash will become an important tool for making mobile device interfaces more interactive and easier to navigate.

Thanks to John Koch for translating this from the original Japanese.

Stefan Richter

Years of Flash experience: 7

How did you get started in Flash?

No one ever forgets their first encounter with Flash, and that includes me. One evening in the late 1990s, while still living in Germany, I was visiting a friend of mine who was designing and building websites at the time. He was also heavily into banners, while I was just starting to teach myself Photoshop, HTML, and a bit of JavaScript.

Long story short, Alex said, "Take a look at this," while pointing at a standard banner which had big shapes flying around inside it. They were moving like nothing else I had ever seen before; I was familiar only with animated GIFs. "That's Flash and it's only 6K," he said.

My jaw dropped to the floor. I knew I had to try this thing called Flash. I left his house that evening with a 30-day trial of Flash 4, unaware of the significance that this encounter would have on the rest of my working life—and spare time. Thanks, Alex!

How have you used Flash in the past and how do you use it today?

Didn't we all start out with keyframe animations, shape tweens, and the like? I certainly did, and it took me a little while to uncover the finer details of Flash—tellTarget springs to mind. A whole new world of variables, functions, and symbols opened up for me. My brain wasn't used to this new way of thinking. Despite the learning curve, it took  me only about six months before I used Flash in my first commercial project. Results.

Whether I liked it or not, I had to familiarize myself with some basic programming concepts, something that was entirely new to me and that I did not see coming when I picked up my copy of this animation tool. This is what I thought it was at the time.

I worked my way through this new world called ActionScript and my skills grew steadily. I'm glad I can now leverage most features of Flash because 80% of my working life is currently spent building Flash applications, most of which could be called rich Internet applications. I use Flash video quite heavily now. It's interesting to see how it's taking significant market share from traditional web video platforms—and doing so at a remarkable speed.

What does Flash mean to you personally?

I encountered Flash for the first time when I was between jobs, which at the time had nothing to do with the Internet or IT at all. Having taught myself some basic web technologies, including Flash, I was able to land my first job as a web designer/developer.

Of course, this had immediate consequences for my personal life. Not only did it pay the bills but it also gave me a new sense of direction, one that I knew I would not tire of for a long time to come. Who knows, maybe Flash saved my life.

What does Flash mean to you professionally?

Flash was key to my career, and I was able to build on that foundation. When I am asked about my job title, my answer is usually "Flash developer." That in itself shows the significance that this software continues to have on my professional career—I identify myself with it. Oh dear, I think I need to get out more.

What has Flash taught you about software development and the web?

Flash has forced me to familiarize myself with software development techniques. It hasn't been long since I first realized that this is what I do now: I develop software. That's so not me, because it makes me sound like a programmer when all I do is just play around with Flash.

Seriously, though, Flash has drawn me deeper into the web and its related technologies. I have learned so much through Flash because of its ability to work with so many other systems like databases, application servers, video, audio, and much, much more. It was a given that I had to confront these technologies and come to grips with them. The fact that I'm actually enjoying it all is an added bonus.

Which feature(s) of Flash amazed you the most, and why?

This has got to be live video and audio, which you can add to your Flash applications by using Flash Media Server. I will never forget actually seeing my website visitors (via webcam) on my site for the first time, chatting to them, and then welcoming them back the next day. The web suddenly lost its anonymity and we loved it.

Those must have been the most unproductive days I ever had, but they were also some of the most memorable.

How has Flash enhanced your creativity?

Flash has made me try things that I otherwise would not have touched. When I got into Flash I planned to use it for timeline animations, as many of us did. ActionScript opened up a whole new world for me and I started being creative by writing code—geeky, I know, but it was fun!

I'm sure others have gone through this process from the other end, maybe picking up Flash to learn ActionScript and ending up creating cartoons or playing with sounds. That is what's so great about Flash: it's like a Swiss army knife, like pen and paper—a tool that invites creativity. The Flash community wouldn't have thrived the way it did without the great versatility that Flash offers.

What's your favorite Flash tip or lesson?

As your projects get bigger and become more complex, compiling your SWFs for testing can become a time-consuming task. In recent months, however, the open-source community has started to embrace Flash as a platform.

Among some of the very useful tools that have emerged from these efforts is an ActionScript 2.0 compiler called MTASC. While being quite strict and forcing you to write good code, this compiler is ridiculously fast and will make frequent compiling much less time-intensive. (No more drinking coffee while compiling.) I suggest you give this a try.

What cautionary tale can you relate to other developers?

The Check Syntax button never lies—only sometimes.

Where will Flash be 10 years?

That's a tough question. If I knew the answer, I'd be retiring very shortly.

Ten years is a lifetime on the web but I can safely say that I love what I'm hearing when Adobe talks about Apollo [Adobe's cross-OS runtime now in development, which allows building and deploying RIAs on the desktop]. I'm convinced that Flex will be with us for a long time to come, and that some new tools and technologies will emerge from these efforts that would leave us speechless if we could only see them now.

Where will Flash be in 10 years? I have no idea, but it will no doubt continue to be an exciting place to be.

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