Advanced Flash Tactics or AFTs are techniques that come from deep within the Flash Art Of War, the oldest Flash military treatise in the world. In this AFT I will discuss - The Renaissance Developer. When I was an artist I loved to paint. Oils were my primary medium but I also used watercolors and acrylics. When I wasn't painting I was using chalk and pastels. Sometimes I sculpted with clay or stone. I would even do etching and print making when the need hit me. My transition from fine art to digital art wasn't nearly as painful as my transition from artist to developer. Then a funny thing happened. Once I learned Flash I didn't go any further. Sure I know PHP, Ruby, JavaScript and a few other languages but not as well as I know ActionScript. Where am I going with this? Well, when I was an artist I picked the right tool for the job, but as a programmer I locked myself into one language and made that my focus. In 2010 my New Year resolution and life goal is to become a Renaissance Developer just like I was as an artist.

First off, when it came to art the message is the medium. When I had an idea I used several different artistic techniques to bring it to life. I found the right tool for the job. The same thing should apply to programming. The amazing thing about programming languages is that they are written to be as open ended as possible but that is also a limitation. You can't make a sculpture out of oil paints, the two mediums allow you to do anything you can image as long as you stay within their limitations. Why shouldn't programming be the same? The following thoughts are not meant to bash Flash, I love the language and will continue to make it my focus. I'm simply interested in and encourage others to step out of their comfort zone and explore as much as possible. Here is my plan:

If you only have a Flash Hammer, everything looks like a Flash Site

I am already starting to break down my first "Flash Can Do Anything" mental barrier. I am completely turned off to building full Flash sites now. I'm a strong advocate for hybrid html/flash sites. They are cleaner, easier to maintain and build. Plus you can avoid a lot of Flash's pitfall such as SEO, deep linking, and Memory Management. Some sites lend themselves perfectly to being all Flash but by and large I rather mix HTML with Flash and use JavaScript as the bridge. The best part about hybrid sites is that you can use any backend language you want. I have a fairly good handle on CakePHP or Ruby is a great option as well.

I have also seen the same mistake made with CMS's/Admin panels on sites. I would never build a CMS's front end in Flash. That is crazy and almost impossible to maintain as the application grows in scope. Some may argue that is what Flex was designed to do but I would take a Hybrid CMS over a full Flash one any day of the week. I do believe modules that are too complex to be built in HTML/JavScript can be done in ActionScript/Flex.

My last point to this topic is mobile devices. Everyone is excited about Flash Player 10.1 on mobile devices but take a moment and think about what that experience is going to be like. Even Adobe has been very upfront that building mobile Flash sites with constrained resources, processor and memory will require lots of upfront optimization. You can completely circumvent this by building a hybrid site that works great across multiple browsers from mobile all the way up to desktop. Why build several versions of the same site when you can simply have the Flash parts degrade nicely into mobile optimized versions and still retain the html parts of the site on device that support full web browsing experiences. The iPhone, which has one of the largest demographic still does not have Flash player in it's browser so you will have to take that into consideration.

What I Plan To Learn In 2010

Here, in no particular order is my list of the languages I want to learn in 2010. Before I list them I want to say there is a big difference between learn and master. I don't expect to have a decent handle on any of these in just a year while learning them in the little free time I have. I simply want to have a foundation of how they work, how to implement some basics to get started, and most of all learn the underlying syntax so I can move forward when I find the need to really use the language.

• Silverlight - Please take a deep breath. I have not kept my desire to learn Silverlight very secret and have already gotten a lot of "feedback" about it. I was loosely involved with the pre 1.0 Silverlight beta when I worked at MLB. I saw enough to become an avid proponent against using the language for years. Now with version 4 around the corner I am starting to open my mind. First off, it is getting very close to what Flash can do. Second there are some really nice features in the new version like 3d acceleration (similar to 2.5D in FP 10) and multi-threading. My real interest in Silverlight is C# and the tools they have set up around the development workflow. Visual Studio is an amazing editor and it is clear that Microsoft takes the feedback of it's developers seriously. Unfortunately it doesn't work on a mac. I talked with Adam Kinney about getting started on a Mac and he explained that Microsoft was making every effort to support Parallels on the Mac. A few years ago, before the Intel switch, I would have considered an answer like that totally unacceptable but duel booting is really not that bad and even running the tools in a VM is acceptable. I have no plans to make SilverLight my main language but we will be seeing feature parity with Flash in the next 2 years and that makes it a serious contender in the RIA space.
• Unity - Probably should have put this at the top of the list but I wanted to be a little dramatic and go with the bad news first. If you are familiar with some of my Flash work you will not be surprised to see this on my list. I have been trying to get 3d to work in Flash since the MX days. Libraries such as PaperVision and Away 3d have helped fill in the huge technical hurdles I was never able to overcome on my own but the performance is horrible. Even with the so called "3d" support in Flash Player 10 it is no substitute for real GPU accelerated support. Unity does one thing and does it well, games! It has a clear focus and delivers on it's promises to push around substantially more polygons then anything else I have played with on the web. Plus you can compile to the iPhone (real 3d apps mind you) and the Wii or desktop (mac + pc). I want to do something special with Unity and try to build sites with it. It may not be possible for all kinds of sites but I have seen some interesting 2d games built with it. I want to make unity version of FlashBum.com with a real 3d engine, I think it would be amazing.
• HaXe - this should be a straight shot for me. Haxe is so similar to AS 3 it's crazy. I am mainly interested in the compiler and speed improvements you an make with AS3 code by using HaXe. I plan on porting over my F*CSS and FlashCamo libraries to see if I can squeeze out any extra optimization.
• Object C - I don't need to explain this do I? To cheat I am going to try to get around this language by using Unity but eventually I will have to pick it up so I may as well bite the bullet now before it's to late.

Getting Started

Learning these 4 languages is not going to be easy. I am going to map out 3 months for each and I have been preparing some Flash code I would like to port over to help get started. I imagine Haxe will come naturally, and most of what I build in Flash will be portable over to Silverlight, if it isn't Microsoft will need to catch up. Unity and Object C will be the hardest but if I clearly map out what I want to build and keep it simple, I shouldn't have a problem. Keeping my expectations low is key to not letting myself down and getting frustrated. It will be interesting to see how all of these languages evolve over the next year. I am also planning on documenting what I learn about each language coming from a Flash Developer mentality.

I would love to hear your thoughts and if you want to also become a Renaissance Developer? In the end it is not about leaning as much as you can but just being a better developer. Each language has aspects that can be shared across platforms and it would be great if it makes me a better Flash Developer in the end. My money is still on Flash being the top of the pack for RIAs and the competition will hopefully make it a stronger platform and language.

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