Wow. What a week. I have the results from the KtichenSync survey which was taken by 49 people (including myself). Thanks to everyone for taking it. Here’s what I’ve learned.
1. The most glaring thing I learned from the survey is that NOBODY’S USING IT! Come on people!
Aside from myself, only 5 people reported that they have actually used KitchenSync, of them, only one has used it for a real project. The good news? That person is none other than Aral Balkan and that project is GAE SWF, so it could be worse.
2. People love Tweener and TweenLite.
People listed Tweener as one they’ve tried but TweenLite came up more as a favorite. Not surprisingly, people loved TweenLite because of it’s incredible small size and speed.
Two people voted for KitchenSync as their favorite. Hey, that’s the same number as the people who have used it for a project. Coincidence?
3. People think KitchenSync is okay (even though most haven’t used it) but to make it better will require matching the features of the other leading tween engines.
People want performance above all else which would explain why TweenLite, currently the fastest of the competitors, is the favorite of the group.
Here is how people prioritized individual features.
4. In the tools department, Flash and FlexBuilder came in at a tie. For those of you who do your coding in Flash and have never used FlexBuilder, I suggest you give it a shot. Flash is miserable as a programming tool (but that’s a topic for another post). Also, despite the cries of distaste from the FlashDevelop crowd, people apparently love TextMate.
In conclusion, I think KitchenSync has a lot to offer. It’s a unique with a sophisticated architecture and some advanced features. However, these tests are proof that to be taken seriously, KS will need to add the basic, missing features that are found in other systems. So the big aim of version 2.0 will be to patch the holes and optimize for speed. I guess that’s what I was planning to do in the first place but it was great to get everyone’s input on the project.
That’s it! Thank you so much for taking the survey! Stay tuned for updates to the project over the summer.
This may come off as sounding ill informed, but I somewhat wish that KS was built on top of GO. It would be pretty nice if projects (physics packages and whatever else may fit the role) would take root with that base, and run with it. I guess mostly for unity and focus. I plan on trying out KS sometime too when I get some free time. A little bummed about no big projects being built on top of GO though.
Hey Mims,
It’s really cool to see the results of this. I’m a bit surprised by the amount of people who use Adobe’s Tween class as well as how many use Flash to code. I guess that’s not too surprising though as Jack Doyle (the maker of TweenLite) is still using the IDE :P
Doh! I’m SO busted. Thanks Matt. I’ll have you know that I just bought Flex, so I’ll soon be hopping off the tricycle and onto the Harley.
Mims, very cool of you to post the results. Well done. Keep up the good work, and good luck on v2 of KitchenSync!
Hey Jack,
I predict you’ll be very satisfied with FlexBuilder, and congratulations for the votes for TweenLite!