This is an important announcement: Development of TimeGlider in the Flash platform has stopped! The application will be in a state of suspended animation — and I will be less available for providing feedback and working out bugs — until a new HTML/Javascript version of the timeline interface is in running order.
I cut my teeth in programming in Flash by figuring out how to make games, widgets, and other fun, interactive stuff and witnessed the language evolve to become a world class object oriented language. But the death knell has sounded for Flash. For many reasons, it’s no longer fun, practical, or profitable to develop in Flash: Javascript libraries like jQuery are catching up with animation and other responsive user interface components; The iPhone/iPad won’t run flash content; Flash doesn’t allow one to easily work with HTML content; Video via sites like YouTube and Vimeo are turning to HTML5; Adobe’s responses to this imbroglio have had the ring of desperation . There’s a snowball effect: fewer developers are out there willing or excited to work on Flash, and so we’re now seeing the Flash ecosystem collapsing. It has saddened me, but continuing to work in AS3 has felt like digging myself into a hole.
The compiled nature of the SWF file makes Flash very fast — The Flash plugin is like a little graphics card attached to a browser, and with this I’ve been spoiled. The challenge of reworking an application like TimeGlider in JS is how to organize events quickly on the timeline as one is zooming in and out. I’m pretty sure it’s possible. Pretty sure.
So I’m looking hard at various frameworks for Javascript like Sproutcore, Javascript MVC, and Dojo and toolsets like jQuery, YUI (Yahoo), Mootools, and others. Nothing is jumping out at me except jQuery. But jQuery isn’t a framework. Javascript, despite having been around since the web was an infant, is still young when it comes to manageable and intuitive frameworks.
So, lots of raw JS experimentation is under way here in Boise, and things are being rebuilt from the ground up starting with a new “RESTful” API that will be built using the Recess PHP framework.
I’m looking for an experienced Javascript developer or two to help out, by the way. Let me know if you know someone : )