A major sign that we’re doing something right (and a small justification of my rockstar post), this recent article from AdvertisingAge paints a very interesting picture of the industry. It makes me wonder a) if we’re just headed for another implosion of the industry and b) why isn’t Crispin Porter calling me? I’d work for a measly $250K!
Thanks to EJ for the link.
They must have been putting in some late nights at Adobe while working on the documentation for Flex… nevertheless, here is an excellent example of how [Not] to write (from Creating and Extending Flex 2 Components).
DefaultProperty metadata tag
The
[DefaultProperty]metadata tag defines the name of the default property of the component when you use the component in an MXML file.The
[DefaultProperty]metadata tag has the following syntax:[DefaultProperty("propertyName")]The propertyName property specifies the name of the default property.You can use the
[DefaultProperty]metadata tag in your ActionScript component to define a single default property. For more information, and an example, see “Creating a default property†on page 125.
[Yawn] If you’ve learned anything about what exactly default properties are from this excerpt can you please explain it to me?
Also, I’d just like to add that the Flex metadata tags, of which there are 11, represent a minor [WTF?] for me. These are used to [Manually] mark certain bits of code as things that the compiler should be aware of but would otherwise not be (for example, all events must be marked with an [Event] metadata tag for Flex to recognize them). It’s probably not as bad as it seems but I wish they had figured out a [BetterTechnique].
Would anyone care to comment on metadata tags?
The FWA is running a poll to vote for the most influential flash websites of the last 10 years (actually 8 years since they don’t consider anything before 1998 worth mentioning). If you’re feeling nostalgic for some drumloops, long intros, and logos-morphing-into-navigation go check it out and vote!
Link provided by Roger
One of the greatest new features of ActionScript 3.0 is without a doubt, the Display List. This is, after all, one of the reasons that the Flash 9 Player runs so ridiculously much faster than the previous versions. But what, you may ask, is it exactly?
A couple of years ago I attended a seminar on Flash’s accessibility features put on by Macromedia. They were very proud of themselves but to be quite honest, it was laughable. To actually create an accessible site using Flash’s interface would be incredibly time consuming and full of workarounds and hacks. For example, assigning alt tags to all but the most basic graphics and animations is very time consuming. Also creating and managing tab indexes for every selectable element is a nightmare but actually, quite a necessary step since the built in algorithm for tabbing does not go in an intuitive order (thanks, Microsoft!)
Learning all of this, however, did help me to realize however some of the ways that Flash can be used to make an accessible site WITHOUT using the Accessibility package. Here are some points.
A lot of this just comes down to good design that doesn’t get in the way of the content making it as easy to access as possible.