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Brajeshwar

Advanced Flash Developers needed

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The market of today needs more Advanced Flash Developers. Very recently I had witnessed two unpalatable cases where two companies have shifted to another technology just because there are not good Advanced Flash Developers ready to take on such projects, work. Well, there are not enough Flash Developers at all. The companies then just dump Flash and went in for other alternatives. They are the typical RIA that we termed it and I was unable to provide them any developers capable of doing the same. Many of my friends who are fanstastic developers are already filled up to the brim with projects. We had recently laugh at the idea if we could be given an additional 12 hrs to the normal 24 we have.

I am not very sure of a solution to this issue at the moment where more quality oriented Flash Developers are in need, and the need for it is rising day by day. More and more companies are asking and ready to take in Flash into the mainstream Development environment. There should be a way to teach and produce more advanced Flash Developers en masse. Lately, I had been trying my bit to get into teaching when time permits but it is very limited to Big Corporates asking for the same at the moment. The lack is, I think, more out of the lack of good infrastructure, people who can invest and other business stuffs (I am a novice on that ground). Prove me wrong when I say that there is no single good Institute that really teaches you Actionscript, advanced or otherwise in India.

It had come with a shocking revelation when I was told of some good Flash developers but actually most of them turn out to be still lingering the Flash 5 style of coding; onClipEvent(event), on(event) and they are producing workable big applications. They are unsure of scoping issues, there are even instances of good Flash Developers who write classes that are very tighly coupled to _root references. Isn’t that like carrying silver bullets to shoot at OOP and specially inheritance in this example. Was Macromedia taking into account more of this habit when they introduced _lockroot? ;-)

Some have argued tooth and nail on how can you write onEnterFrame on the frame? How will you reference other objects? Even at this Flash MX 2004, Flash Player 7 days, some developers still scatter onEnterFrames around without garbage collecting them. It is a fact that Flash is very lenient in your development style. But then shouldn’t we need to learn, clean ourselves much for the betterment of ourselves rather than just bringing products because they work.

Isn’t it time to start some cleansing, some rule to put to ourselves and improve and make Flash Development better. I am very definitive that there are ardent need of Good Flash Developers and in large amount these days. Even looking from a Macromedia’s angle, more Flash Developer, more good Flash Developers means more Flash in the market, more adoption of Flash by Corporates.

Looking closer home to me, India badly needs more and more Flash Developers.

Brajeshwar

Brajeshwar believes in simplicity; pushes the envelop and envisions the betterment of usable and practical solutions.

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  • http://blogs.okyere.org/resolve eokyere

    brajeshwar, it is interesting that you mention "advanced" developers... but do not actually specify what the makeup should be... without specifying that, how do you propose to "produce" them "en masse"? ... sotirov certainly makes the point in " and I think I prefer people that can think in OO manner instead of Flash \"gurus\"." (the slashes are mine)... I don't think there's any such thing as an "advanced" flash developer... if there is, then every tom-dick-harry who's ever written actionscript code, or tried out examples in a colin moock book thinks he's that, don't u say?

    what you are actually calling an "advanced" flash developer is somebody who knows flash/actionscript (well) and _knows_ other languages/platforms very well too; you are looking for somebody who can take requirements docs and create interfaces and structures (not thinking flash), just as easily as he/she would implement it; i've worked on projects that start out as a purely actionscript position, and ended up doing anything between 20-60% java code as requirements change and issues emerge... with some flash interface design every now and then... in that sense, what you are actually looking for is a seasoned pro-flash/actionscript developer

    - eokyere

  • zwetan

    The problem is flash is considered by the OOP developers a limited technology and they do not see the need to invest time to learn flash.

    this is due to the association of ActionScript to ECMAScript, a lot of "serious" OOP developper think ECMAScript is a joke

    Macromedia try to improve that "bad association" with AS2, to make it feel more like Java.

    But imho, the best solution would be to explain to those so call "serious" developper, that ECMAScript as a prototype-based language is as serious as any class-based language.

    And the reason for the lack of advanced flash developper is also linked to that, JavaScript was made to be accessible to non-developper,
    ActionScript got the same "default", a lot of people can use flash 3 month and considere themselves "ActionScript programmer".

    When clients scout for even just a "flash developper", an "ActionScript developper" (or any other way to call it) they face on 1 side their own OOP developpers lack of knowledge about prototype-based programming and on the other side a lot of "newbie developpers".

    They are even residual bad effects to that, in my country France for example, now they are so much "newbie developpers" presenting themselves as "ActionScript guru" that it's totally cumber the market for people you might call "advanced actionscript developper".

    The employer can not make the distinction between the two, so once he has been disgusted by a "newbie developper", he ever loss interest in flash technology or worse think every actionscript developper work for dirt cheap salary.

    hey...that's life, happy that's not the same in other country.

  • zwetan

    The problem is flash is considered by the OOP developers a limited technology and they do not see the need to invest time to learn flash.

    this is due to the association of ActionScript to ECMAScript, a lot of "serious" OOP developper think ECMAScript is a joke

    Macromedia try to improve that "bad association" with AS2, to make it feel more like Java.

    But imho, the best solution would be to explain to those so call "serious" developper, that ECMAScript as a prototype-based language is as serious as any class-based language.

    And the reason for the lack of advanced flash developper is also linked to that, JavaScript was made to be accessible to non-developper,
    ActionScript got the same "default", a lot of people can use flash 3 month and considere themselves "ActionScript programmer".

    When clients scout for even just a "flash developper", an "ActionScript developper" (or any other way to call it) they face on 1 side their own OOP developpers lack of knowledge about prototype-based programming and on the other side a lot of "newbie developpers".

    They are even residual bad effects to that, in my country France for example, now they are so much "newbie developpers" presenting themselves as "ActionScript guru" that it's totally cumber the market for people you might call "advanced actionscript developper".

    The employer can not make the distinction between the two, so once he has been disgusted by a "newbie developper", he ever loss interest in flash technology or worse think every actionscript developper work for dirt cheap salary.

    hey...that's life, happy that's not the same in other country.

  • Arindam

    Oye, Flash is light, it indeed is. :-)

    RiA rocks and so do ya. Just recieved my prized and personal copy of MX Studio 2004 with Flash Professional. *High Five*

  • Arindam

    Oye, Flash is light, it indeed is. :-)

    RiA rocks and so do ya. Just recieved my prized and personal copy of MX Studio 2004 with Flash Professional. *High Five*

  • atari6

    I think *advanced* developers are the ones that know how flash reacts, thinks and lives inside itself. Thus, your always good staring with some simple *but yet complicated* flash4 code to build up your skills (a bit of a joke but still). The idea is, experience is the key to virtue.

    I've been working with flash since version 3. What has thought me the most is to teach people around how to make things work and to make them understand the concepts of how things within flash. Been on irc channels for those flash 4 years helping out anyone that wondered how to do a scrollbar or pane.

    this makes me think...

    I think what some new developers dont get is .. would they be able to re-do their own components.. they dont care since they exist, The problem is that after that they dont even get to see how to manipulate movieclip instances properly.

    For sure you can be a developers that knows how to program loading info from a server and display the data within components that work together. This is mainstream knowledge.

    Flash is about more than that. you can create your everything from nothing. And I think that the pleasure of being a Flash developers is to achieve the impossible.

    So express yourflash and you'll find that dream job || life.

  • atari6

    I think *advanced* developers are the ones that know how flash reacts, thinks and lives inside itself. Thus, your always good staring with some simple *but yet complicated* flash4 code to build up your skills (a bit of a joke but still). The idea is, experience is the key to virtue.

    I've been working with flash since version 3. What has thought me the most is to teach people around how to make things work and to make them understand the concepts of how things within flash. Been on irc channels for those flash 4 years helping out anyone that wondered how to do a scrollbar or pane.

    this makes me think...

    I think what some new developers dont get is .. would they be able to re-do their own components.. they dont care since they exist, The problem is that after that they dont even get to see how to manipulate movieclip instances properly.

    For sure you can be a developers that knows how to program loading info from a server and display the data within components that work together. This is mainstream knowledge.

    Flash is about more than that. you can create your everything from nothing. And I think that the pleasure of being a Flash developers is to achieve the impossible.

    So express yourflash and you'll find that dream job || life.

  • Josh Ettwein

    FlashApe... what you said is interesting. I'm in the process of leaving an interactive company I've worked for for 2 years, and spent a lot of time getting them into RIA development.

    The problem they are now facing is finding a replacement for me who can hit the ground running, so to speak. This company has made a bit of a name for itself in their main vertical markets as creating some very compelling, results-producing RIAs, and unfortunately, they're now a bit stuck when I leave.

    The rest of the flash staff here are not OO ActionScripters, don't understand design patterns, etc., and to get them up to speed is not really feasible given the workload that is coming in immediately.

    I just started helping them put together a job posting, but for the very low salary they are likely to offer, I don't think they are going to get many bites. I would hate to see all the work I've done getting them up to speed go to waste for lack of qualified talent, you know?

    I think that the few people who are very good with AS are slowly starting to realize that they have a very marketable skill, and that the demand is taking off. You watch... the future is bright for AS folks out there!

  • Josh Ettwein

    FlashApe... what you said is interesting. I'm in the process of leaving an interactive company I've worked for for 2 years, and spent a lot of time getting them into RIA development.

    The problem they are now facing is finding a replacement for me who can hit the ground running, so to speak. This company has made a bit of a name for itself in their main vertical markets as creating some very compelling, results-producing RIAs, and unfortunately, they're now a bit stuck when I leave.

    The rest of the flash staff here are not OO ActionScripters, don't understand design patterns, etc., and to get them up to speed is not really feasible given the workload that is coming in immediately.

    I just started helping them put together a job posting, but for the very low salary they are likely to offer, I don't think they are going to get many bites. I would hate to see all the work I've done getting them up to speed go to waste for lack of qualified talent, you know?

    I think that the few people who are very good with AS are slowly starting to realize that they have a very marketable skill, and that the demand is taking off. You watch... the future is bright for AS folks out there!

  • atari6

    I remember the days when being a flash developper was not even a job. ;)

  • atari6

    I remember the days when being a flash developper was not even a job. ;)

  • Dan

    Yes indeed these C/Java programmer guys must be really difficult to work with if they regard everything beyond their own scope as some bad practice crap. ;)

  • Dan

    Yes indeed these C/Java programmer guys must be really difficult to work with if they regard everything beyond their own scope as some bad practice crap. ;)

  • http://www.2twinks.com/ Twink

    This is my first time here and was wondering how often posts are made?

  • http://www.2twinks.com/ Twink

    This is my first time here and was wondering how often posts are made?

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