So, I’m not a formally trained programmer. I started using BASIC on my Commodore Amiga back in the 80’s, and repeatedly bashed my head into C/C++ throughout the 90’s til I found Flash. I’ve gotten pretty damn good at making Flash do what I want it to do via code, and have progressed from hobbyist, through experienced user, author, freelancer/contractor, and a few months ago became “Senior Media Developer” at a Boston design firm.
I generally don’t have a problem making Flash do what people want it to do. In fact, I’ve gotten pretty good at making it do things beyond what people expected. So everyone is pretty happy, including me.
But now I find myself in the position of developing some pretty large scale projects. Gone are the days when simply making a cool effect is good enough. Now I have to make sure that a few thousand lines of code all works together, and is clear and well documented, so I can find something a month or several later. I’m still the sole “Flash guy” here, but eventually I’ll have to make sure others can understand my code as well. And then there is versioning – prototype, alpha, beta, gold, version 2, etc.
In short, I’ve got to get myself organazized.
AS2.0 classes and components are a big help. I think I need to get more info on design patterns and versioning techniques and general development organization practices.
Any input, links, books, resources, etc. would be great, not only for me, but anyone else who may find themselves in a similar situation.
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have you checked out grant skinner’s UML application, gmodeler? Its fantastic! Its free!
Beyond that, the best book I’ve read has been the Gang of Four – Design Patterns book. Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, and John Vlissides (The Gang of Four). Worth the read for large scale flash.
I’m insane for your flash skills! Thank you for going open source, i’ve learned tons from you! 33’s site looks great too!
Nice entry. I’m in exactly the same phase as you are. Started out with basic on a Vic 20 & an Apple II and now have been doing Flash for a few years. And it is time to grow up as the applications get more complex.
To cope with this I find myself developing my own coding standards for naming variables and comments. And trying to develop my own ‘process’ when it comes to developing designs both with and without Flash. And reading many articles about developing projects. But I too miss a true guide to developing complex projects with Flash.
Recently I have ‘discovered’ the whole idea of design patterns and they have been useful to me and something I need to explore further. Mostly I have found that I already was applying those before them recognising as such.
Maybe not the info you were hoping for, but just to let you know you’re not the only one looking for this kind of input.
Hi there,
This could sound like a really bad book plug, or it could sound like an offer of help – I wrote Reality J2EE for Macromedia Press, which is essentially about building Rich Internet Applications, the organisation of client-side code, using design patterns in ActionScript, unit-testing ActionScript, Flash Remoting and J2EE. It’s about applying best-practices that I’ve learned in enterprise software development, to building big, enterprise Flash apps. I think a lot of the concepts presented will be what you’re looking for.
If it helps, I can certainly point you to further material from there. I’ll be releasing a blog soon as well, in which myself and other members of my consultancy share info. on building these bigger applications, again, applying our experience of years of enterprise J2EE development to the emerging discipline of RIA development.
I’ve received some positive feedback from those that have found Reality J2EE, and are in the same situation as yourself, so I hope that it would apply for you to.
Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Steven Webster
Technical Director
iteration::two
Sorry — I didn’t realise that you would strip out HTML links. The URLs you might want to take a look at for the book are:
http://www.iterationtwo.com/interactive_casestudies_bankofedinburgh.html
and
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0321158849/qid=1062341538/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_2/102-5593658-5992155?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
I hope those links come thru ok 😉
Steven
If you’re really interested in getting into software Project Management a must read is “Deadline” (http://www.onclipevent.com/archives/enterframe/000466.html) also get “The Mythical Man Month”. Apart from that the Gang of Four book as suggested earlier and also “Writing Solid Code” by Steve Maguire comes highly recommended.
Although your working in Flash, there’s a vast amount of good info from the more “traditional” web/UI developers. The joy of patterns is that they are code agnostic – all these are relevant to web/UI development whatever technology your working with:
http://time-tripper.com/uipatterns/
http://www.welie.com/patterns/
http://www.eleganthack.com/widgetopia/
http://www.webdesignpractices.com/
But patterns alone don’t help you get organized, there just a way of abstracting a problem and providing a common language for discussing those problems. Being organized is something I know nothing about 😉
As above, I also want to upgrade my programming skills and think about more complex applications supported by well organized classes. I want to know if a new version of Steven Webster’s book will cover actionscript 2.0. Putting flash code in packages will be a great advance.