17 Responses to “Flash Platform - A Community of Sharing”

1. #  Fréderic Cox August 15, 2009 9:15 AM

   This is very motivational Ted. I always felt that my coding standards and approaches were not good enough to share. But you are right, sharing will only improve that. Thanks  

2. #  Keith Peters August 15, 2009 10:07 AM

   True observation Ted.
   
   Frederic, my coding standards and approaches are often horrible from a best practices and even optimization standpoint. But I believe that they tend to be clear and understandable. I figure if someone can understand a concept based on some code I've shared, they can then go ahead and format their code correctly using what they now know.  

3. #  Ben Stucki August 15, 2009 10:26 AM

   Agreed 100%. If you keep all your coding locked up then good luck to you, but you can't expect recognition for code no-one's seen.  

4. #  Ben Stucki August 15, 2009 10:28 AM

   Agreed 100%. If you keep all of your code locked up then good luck to you, but you can't expect recognition for code no-one's seen.  

5. #  Bob Brodie August 15, 2009 12:05 PM

   I totally agree regarding sharing code. I've benefited greatly from code that others have shared (Actionscript & other languages). The challenge sometimes though is where and how.
   
   I'm a long-time developer, but when I was 1st learning Flash in March this year, it was really helpful to find example code from others including the code & tutorials I found on gotoandlearn.com. In my 1st project, I wanted a dynamic tool tip for a XML-based photo viewer that I created. I couldn't find any free code out there that i liked, so I decided to create something that was easily reusable and share it. I even created documentation (using asdoc), a demo fla, & a write-up on my blog. My motivation was three-fold: feedback on my code, create awareness of my existence as a new Actionscript developer, and mostly giving back to help others in the Flash community.
   
   As I was familiar with Lee Brimelow's work from gotoandlearn.com ( I hadn't heard of you yet), I sent it to him a couple of different ways to get some idea where it could be shared. I never heard back from him. I'm not trying to dis Lee, I'm just telling what happened (I met him after that at Flash camp in SF & thanked him for gotoandlearn.com, but with so many people, I didn't have time to ask him about this).
   
   As an Actionscript newbie, my challenge in sharing code was knowing where to share it. I tweeted my blog entry & some people have picked up the code. Since that time I've seen other places (e.g. google code) for sharing.
   
   I'm now working with Flex & I plan to share some of my code from it as well. I think code sharing benefits the entire Flash Platform community & help the products to grow. Again, I appreciate you encouraging sharing. If you have the time, it would be great if you could blog about how/where to share your code as well--Actionscript & maybe other Adobe product code.  

6. #  Sean Moore August 15, 2009 1:30 PM

   I recently had the amazing opportunity to work on a project where the code was actually open source. You can find more info on my blog here: http://seantheflexguy.com/blog/2009/08/15/presently-microblogging-air-application-for-business-open-source/  

7. #  Harry B. Garland August 15, 2009 11:31 PM

   I think I'm missing a step.. Writing new and useful Flex code and sharing it is easy. Marketing it is hard.
   
   I failed to get anybody to look at my code when I put it into google code as open source.
   
   Here's my project that I abandoned when I couldn't figure out who to go to and say "Here I am!"
   
   http://code.google.com/p/flexcommandline/
   
   This lets you add a command-line interface inside your Flex application, similar to how some video games have a command line you can pop down and type in commands.
   
   Also, there is a really great open-source component that I found called DockableFlex. I reached out to its author, and he had a similar story of how he was frustrated that he couldn't find good marketing channels to get his code out there.
   
   His component allows you to create view containers which the user can drag and dock, very similar to Eclipse when you edit many source code files on the screen at once.
   
   I would love to see these community projects become more embraced by the masses. It would certainly motivate me to grow my contributions and share more code. But so far I just don't know what to do to make that happen.  

8. #  Andy August 17, 2009 5:44 AM

   One of the biggest issues I saw raised in the comments on the post you reference was Adobe ignoring, or at least remaining silent, on the bug tracker. I understand the importance of being involved in a community, but I don't think it should be a requirement to being heard. I would think that the money I pay Adobe for their products would be enough to at least get a response to issues like FP-444...  

9. #  Ed Sullivan August 17, 2009 9:27 AM

   One of the best places to share your code is in the Adobe cookbooks.
   
   The Flex cookbook is at: http://www.adobe.com/go/flex_cookbook.
   
   The AIR Cookbook is at: http://www.adobe.com/go/air_cookbook.
   
   We will be adding new cookbooks for several products and technologies in the very near future as well so folks can contribute a wider range of recipes.  

10. #  jason olmsted August 17, 2009 12:47 PM

    Sharing code is great for the reasons that Ted mentions, but it is more useful yet. First, for those looking to promote your efforts, you can't just take the attitude of "build it and they will come". You want to be noticed?, then you have to be active.
    
    The first step is to post meaningful comments in popular blogs like this one. On the giving side, it encourages the author to continue to post. On the receiving side, it is an opportunity to promote yourself. For instance, I'm going to be checking out http://code.google.com/p/flexcommandline/ because I saw it mentioned here by Harry. I wasn't looking for it, but there it is and it got my attention.
    
    Secondly, even if you are using google code ... wait, especially if you are maintaing a project at google code, you need to have a blog. Speak descriptively of your code. Explain it. Hype it. That gives the search engine spiders something meaty to find and it will greatly improve your ability to be found in related organic SERPs.
    
    Lastly, find value in sharing that doesn't require others to see your work. It sounds perhaps odd, but I have rationalized my own efforts where I see the point of posting and sharing even if no one else ever looks at it. There are two areas of value in this case. First, when I endeavor to explain the problem to some hypothetical third person, I am giving myself an opportunity to re-evaluate the problem and my solution. Sort of one person code review. Not perfect, but I have caught errors during this process. (One thing that I really took away from college was that I learn more when I attempt to teach because teaching is not a mentally passive activity) Second, I was reading a blog awhile back, I wish I had a link, where the author gave the anecdote of searching for a problem on google and finding the solution at his own blog. That was inspirational and I now use the blog as a public repository to remember solutions past so that I can use google to pick my own brain.
    
    So don't get discouraged. Realize that blogging and code sharing is a selfish activity about bettering yourself and you'll do it even without legions of adoring fans.
    
    @Ted: Thanks for another thought provoking post.  

11. #  Ted Patrick August 17, 2009 1:21 PM

    Andy,
    
    There is work underway to make progress more transparent from the teams directly. Many of these items are complete, yet the bugbase has not been updated. The good news is things are better then they seem, bad part is we are not communicating clearly and leaving many of our best customers thinking we do not care. It is an important issue that is getting fixed.
    
    Ted :)  

12. #  TheCobra August 17, 2009 2:28 PM

    I agree 100%. I really love this flow of conversation. It is great to get such insightful help on something like this. Self-marketing can be hit or miss. It is nice to see someone in the "elitist club" giving us n00bs tips on getting a little community hug. Keep up the good work!  

13. #  Martin Heidegger August 18, 2009 7:47 AM

    "First, for those looking to promote your efforts, you can't just take the attitude of "build it and they will come". You want to be noticed?, then you have to be active."
    
    I think this very idea is why open source for flash sucks: Everybody has his specialities: Flash Developer are rarely good documentation guys. Good Software engineers are rarely good marketeers.
    
    Collaboration of different people is the only alternative to having a open source community driven by talents who can do everything. I can rarely see that a intense form of collaboration happens or (which is even worse) is even suggested by the gurus.
    
    Flash open source needs many beginner/mediocre programmers to help out in documentation/examples and communication in projects designed/coded by advanced programmers. Things which many qualified persons don't seem to think themselves capable of.
    
    It feels furthermore not productive that the invitations go mostly the persons who manage to do all by themselves. The conferences and talks creates a >Hero< image. Think about it: Aral Balkan, Ralph Hauwert, Andre Michelle, Nicolas Canasse, Saqoosha, etc. They all stand not just for projects but for whole categories of development in flash. They are promated as Hero's we should follow. Most of the stuff published of them(that I can think of) is done by one person(sometimes two). Our heros work alone - thats why we work alone.
    
    (this might be a bit exaggerated but the overall impression looks like this from here).  

14. #  Benji August 18, 2009 12:56 PM

    "One frustration expressed was that new/unknown developers feel left out of the dialog and are seemingly overlooked within the community."
    
    Huh. That's now central theme I took away from the comments on that post.
    
    Many of the comments on your post were inspired by Joa Ebert's "This is an outrage" post. So, although many of us anonymous members of the community might agree, I think it'd be a mistake to conclude that the feelings of being left out of the dialogue are strictly a symptom of being a "new/unknown developer".  

15. #  cm August 18, 2009 6:21 PM

    @Ted's comment:
    That is really good to hear... maybe some hints on what aspects of the player's performance are being addressed? Lee's recent video answer "More GPU stuff..." wasn't very clear on what developments are going on within the VM/Rendering aspects.
    
    As for community and sharing it makes a rather nice loop: more source = more understanding = more source.
    
    However I do think it takes a bit more then simple sharing source... more so its about helping exposing projects that find general usage across the community. Developers now face the reality of statistics... take googlecode for example there must be a thousand opensource AS3 projects and because of the sheer amount many sit unnoticed and possible voiceless dependent on the developer's social skills.
    
    As I noted in a reply to of Jason's "elitist" post the community could use even more formalized structuring. For example a "Flash Community Evangelist" role/figurehead @ Adobe with a sole focus on open community coordination, developments and events. With the goal to encourage/reward involvement and continue to help clarify Adobe's communication strategy within the community.
    
    Currently this is led mainly by Ted and Lee... and other evangelists, who REALLY do an amazing job but much of their time is allocated towards evangelizing the technologies compared to the online community itself. A simple example task would be every week finding 2-3 of the latest AS3 developers/libraries and feature them on an Adobe blog and give out some swag on occasion. (Will work for Flash... Flashbum should be able to build a Adobe swag house already)
    
    Also this might be reaching but has anyone ever considered Adobe arranged online "Town Hall" style meetings/panels for AS3 developers? Something that is more wildly accessible to developers than physical conferences yet can provide an organized manner for a developer to get lively responses to their questions and interact with fellow peers. Cocomo would need a "raise hand" feature tho to be polite :P
    
    Lee's recent video was a great example, putting a face and voice on the responses really helped clear up many questions and one could only imagine real-time would result in even more involvement and collaboration.
    
    Anyway... really glad to see more and more open dialog stemming out of blog posts in the past few weeks. I really think the Flash community is picking up momentum and I'm looking forward to the future holds... after all Adobe holds majority of the creatives ;)  

16. #  An Army of Small Libraries August 20, 2009 7:48 AM

    [...] Ted Patrick, known on twitter as @adobeted, recently released two interesting as3 libraries: FDOT and Tubes. This is not unique to Ted. People constantly develop amazing solutions to common problems. The problem is that it is hard to find these solutions. Unless the developer already has a large following, his code usually dies in obscurity. Someone facing a common problem will either develop their own solution, or find a stale solution on google. Ted has been proposing that someone create a standard as3 library. I would like to recommend an alternative. [...]  

17. #  Joe Ward August 25, 2009 6:21 PM

    Another place you can share code (or links to code on your blog) is in the comments section of the official online Adobe documentation. That will help developers looking for a solution to a problem find your's.