Second day notes from Adobe MAX 2001 in Los Angeles. A lot of these comments are my raw reactions at the time (apologies in advance).
Sneak Peeks Session
- Rain Wilson rocked it: “What the hell is a command-line?”
- Flash Builder reverse debug stepping – kinda cool
- Flash Builder “why” command (how did a variable get set into its current state) – very cool
- Cool new image search and video manipulation prototypes
jQuery Mobile Session
- Boy, if I didn’t already know jQuery Mobile I would have been lost in the first few minutes.
- used persistence.js for db stuff – will look into this as a Web DB abstraction layer
- Hint: use file:/// to overcome Chrome not reading local data files or launch with –allow-file-access-from-files
- to put back button on right side (vs default left)
Adobe Mtg
- Group (in public space) meeting with training partners
- Lots of complaints from partners about certification exams (they do tend to suck)
- Complaints about quality of course material (Ah, those heady Macromedia days – we miss you Sue Hove!)
You Don’t Know Flex About Objective-C Session
- Wow, not a line of Objective-c code shown, just talk about some high-level diffs and similarities
- Code style similar between AS and O-c
- Classes should be used
- MVC Pattern built-in
- Types, operators, libaray usage similar
- Memory management worst part of o.c.
- allocate and deallocate
- hard to debug
- Garbage Collection in latest version but not for mobile
- No code samples or examples?!
AIR for Mobile Session
- Short preso on simple game using AIR for Android
Day 2 General Session
- Adobe buys PhoneGap!
- Check out Machinarium game
- Edge preview 3 now available
- jQuery Mobile Theme Roller from Adobe coming in next 2 weeks
- JQM theming available NOW in FireWorks via updater
- CSS Regions and CSS Exclusions – submited to W3C from Adobe- implemented in latest Chrome
- CSS Shaders – new spec/rec submitted to W3C – Wow! amazing transformations
- Flash – better GPU demod in upcoming Angry Birds for Flash – more explosive bits!
- Check out http://www.adobe.com/go/maxday2
Flash & Flex in an HTML5/Native App World Session
- EffectiveUI guy: RJ Owen; Denver, Co.
- Gin/beer >> Flash/HTML5 analogy (both survived?)
- History of Flash/Flex
- Fair appraisal of HTML5 Canvas; gaming getting better; Flash still better
- Video argument hinges on DRM; but since DRM is evil, HTML5 may be better in the end;)
- Flex web-based apps on iPads not possible, so HTML5 better option for online app.
- Speaker:
- seems unaware of UI frameworks such as jQueryUI and jQuery Mobile – claims HTML hard to read ?!.
- some misrepresentations about JS frameworks – somehow more variety is worse?
- avoids open vs closed technologies arguments
- implication that JSON, used in Sencha, as a fringe format; wow, steaming pile of BS.
- HTML5 better at accessibility, SEO and semantic description
- Flash performance getting better compared to native apps, but will never be as good.
- Flash tends to be large in file size than HTML5 or native apps.
