Comments for FlashSim Blog

Comment on Moving back into Subversion by Moving back into Subversion « FlashSim Blog

Moving back into Subversion « FlashSim Blog — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:39:54 +0000

[...] Moving back into Subversion « FlashSim Blog [...]

Comment on AS 3.0 State Machines by Samuel Asher Rivello

Samuel Asher Rivello — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:15:00 +0000

Enums are my favorite community developed language feature!!!

An Enum is a kind of variable that is not natively available in ActionScript 3.0, but can be found in other languages such as C++. An enum is a type with a restricted set of values.

Here is a demo;
http://www.blog.rivello.org/?p=621

Comment on Flash Builder 4 inline syntax for states looks slick but encourages bad behavior by jonkaye

jonkaye — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 04:45:33 +0000

Thanks for the clarification, Matt. I didn’t intend to be picky, and I see wonderful things in FB4 that make me wish I had more time to explore (though alas, life intrudes)!

Rather, since I spend a lot of time developing applications that use state machines (finite state machines and hierarchical state machines), I wanted to point out the potentially-dangerous path one might go down by subordinating to elements the behaviors for specific contexts/states, thereby diluting the critical organizational benefit of using a state-based architecture.

Comment on Flash Builder 4 inline syntax for states looks slick but encourages bad behavior by Matt Chotin

Matt Chotin — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 04:08:42 +0000

Hey Jon,

I think there may be a misunderstanding here since States for components are not part of a state machine. They are more about a component being in a visual state, e.g., up or down, selected, etc. Given that these tend to be minor adjustments and not wholesale replacements, making it easier to include deltas as close to the actual component declaration as possible I think is a lot easier to understand. We’re pretty excited by this change, we think a very useful feature will now finally get used

Matt

Comment on Flash Builder 4 inline syntax for states looks slick but encourages bad behavior by jonkaye

jonkaye — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 18:14:31 +0000

I’d love to discuss this more if we have a chance to meet sometime, maybe at MAX.

One comment, though — you mentioned the “delta changes on many components” — this seems to me you’re suggesting the behavior of a component could depend on how that component has been changed over the history of states that have been visited. This is a big no-no in terms of state machine design, as each state is supposed to be a complete context. The explosion of states is one problem with FSM’s being used practically in large systems.

I am eager to get into FB4 and adapt my hierarchical state machine (HSM) work to it, so hopefully we can have a good discussion at the next opportunity.

Comment on Flash Builder 4 inline syntax for states looks slick but encourages bad behavior by Ted Patrick

Ted Patrick — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 16:20:22 +0000

The states syntax in FX2&FX3 was very hard to read and extend. As all state changes occurred in blocks, describing the delta changes on many components got very complex and hard to maintain. Being able to denote states where components are instanciated makes it much easier to edit given the location of the state values is on the instance itself. It also allows for more incremental change.

I stopped using States at FX2.2 because the syntax was so hard to maintain. The new syntax makes it much easier overall and I feel it adds much value to Flex4. I know we can debate this round and round but go build and app using states in Flex 3 and Flex 4 and you will see this super clear.

My take is that it is a great change.

Ted

Comment on Building data dashboards for customers by Building data dashboards for customers | Adobe Tutorials

Building data dashboards for customers | Adobe Tutorials — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 06:44:44 +0000

[...] I just saw a blog post on Seth Godin’s blog recommending that companies build data dashboards to help track usage . It is right on, and the short post is a worthwhile read. About 1 year ago, I was asked to evaluate a tech company for a significant investment, and I was so impressed with their data tracking dashboards used that it was clear they really were thinking straight about their business. They were managing/selling text services in Europe, and their control center was impressive. Th See the original post here: Building data dashboards for customers [...]

Comment on Looking for “Help” by halicon

halicon — Tue, 26 May 2009 19:36:57 +0000

Thanks for the response… I had no real luck in finding a solid solution, except installing flash cs3 parallel to cs4, which I would hardly call an elegant solution.

Unfortunately the component only has documentation once installed in the glorious help panel – rip :.(

Adobe CS3 is also so much quicker… thanks and nice blog!

Comment on Looking for “Help” by jonkaye

jonkaye — Tue, 26 May 2009 03:26:31 +0000

Jay said he would get back to me on this, but has not, unfortunately. The only thing I can recommend is to poke around the Help folder in the Flash install directories — the MXP should have installed help files somewhere in there even if Flash isn’t using them. They should be readable via a browser.

Comment on Looking for “Help” by halicon

halicon — Mon, 25 May 2009 15:24:05 +0000

Hi,

I am not sure if Adobe has resolved this or not but only discovered today to my horror that I cannot find extension help for a new component I am utilising for a a huge flash project.

Are you aware of any solution from Adobe as of yet ?