Entry tags:

flash catalyst actionscript adobe swish

Adobe's Flash Catalyst
Adobe is releasing a new product called Flash Catalyst (formerly named "Thermo").

"Flash Catalyst" sounds like a very early version of Flash, or else a very "watered down" version.

I am wondering if Adobe came up with this product because of the backlash they received from infuriated graphic designers who became more and more alienated and frustrated by an ever-increasing complexity with Flash's scripting / programming language, Action Script.

Learning AS2 (Action Script 2) was difficult enough for many graphic artists.

I am no exception in that regard, especially since I am self-taught; I never took any computer science, programming, or scripting courses while in college. (None of the colleges in my area even offered Flash or Action Script courses, either.)

Adobe, unfortunately, made some big changes from version 2 of Action Script to version 3, which furthered increased the difficulty and learning curve.

Here is how the "Flash Catalyst" software is described on Adobe's site (and notice the phrase "without coding"):

Adobe Flash Catalyst is a new professional interaction design tool for rapidly creating application interfaces and interactive content without coding.

These can range from interactive Ads, product guides and design portfolios to user interfaces for applications.

... The designer does this by visually defining events, transitions and motion. Flash Catalyst can output a finished Flash SWF or AIR application that’s ready to publish on the web.

In addition designers can provide the project file to developers who can use Adobe Flex Builder to add additional functionality such as connection to back-end systems.

Notice also that in this product description there is an emphasis here on dividing the tasks between the artist (that is, the front end, visual, creative work) and that of the developer/programmer.

It seems to me the current version of Flash, "CS4," (as well as the previous versions, starting at around 4, 5, or MX all the way to CS3) is aimed more towards computer programmers and application developers.

As such, it should be renamed "Flash for Programmers," while this new product, "Flash Catalyst," should be entitled, "Flash for Graphic Artists," or, "Flash for People Who Hate Coding, Programming, and Scripting and Have No Desire to Learn Any of Those Things."

I cannot, and would not, refer to Flash MX, the current version, or any version in-between, as being "artist friendly," or intuitive to graphic designers.

Forcing artistic, creative types to learn anything even remotely resembling scripting or programming was a very big mistake on Adobe's part, as it was on Macromedia's part (Macromedia being the former owners of Flash).

Adobe, Macromedia, or someone should have created a "WYSIWYG" (what you see is what you get) version of Flash many, many years ago; with "Dreamweaver," Adobe/Macromedia already had such software for web page creation, so why not something similar for Flash?

(About the closest thing I've ever seen to such a package is Swish Zone's "Swish"), and another product called Fly Paper.

If I'm not mistaken, "Flash Catalyst" uses "MXML" and does not provide an option for using Action Script.

If this blog entry is any indication, developers do not like "Flash Catalyst." This one reader comment sums up their feelings (emphasis added):

[by "John O"]
We’ve been talking about the new workflow and came to similar conclusions. At my last 9-5, I was the UI designer for a WPF project using Blend for my work.

After finding out that all the developers wanted was my XAML, I moved back to doing my work in Fireworks and using the Infragistics XAML exporter.

Round tripping sounds great but in reality, no developer I know trusts any auto-generated code.

As one reader ("useflashmore") on another page put it:

Why would Adobe build a new product to do what Flash should have evolved to do?

To read more about Flash Catalyst, try this page:

Adobe's Flash Catalyst Moves Forward

The Adobe tool aims to simplify the creation of interactive applications.

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