How is it, in 2009, that there are still AS2 sites being built? Maintained, I will grudgingly allow, but why are there still sites being built in this palaeolithic technology? Steam-punk chic? It’s beyond me …
(And more importantly, how did I end up agreeing to work on one of these damned projects?)
Tags: AS2, obsolescence, rant
A lot of sites are produced by design firms where the designer/developer just has not had time to learn AS3. The migration is a slow process and many of the projects do not have the budget to allow for the team to cut their teeth on it. I know of 3 firms where everything is still in Flash 8 IDE. Clients don’t care as long as it looks right and functions right. The last thing the team members want to do is go over to gblog to read up on the GC research Grant did. Time is money and they can estimate the time for AS2 development.
Pathetic excuses. A Flash developer who hasn’t “had time” to learn AS3 since its release in June 2006 should give up and grow carrots.
I feel AS2.0 is simpler for design oriented guys who are not in true OOPS based environment. Guys coming from or working in typical e-learning firms does not know anything about class and packages. Their main goal is to make slides and user controls with simple event handling.
These are comparatively easy and familier for them doing it in AS 2 coz the whole life they have learnt is MovieClip and gotoAndStop, it will take some time to come out of this tradition. till the time AS 2.0 will rock ;)
Anand
There are more people with skills compatible with AS2 than with AS3.
I agree that AS3 is far superior to AS2, but I also believe that AS2 has reached a level of maturity and stability that AS3 has not yet, as evidenced by the GC issues that still plague developers using even the improvements in FP 10.
I’ve seen a lot of comments like “I’ll never go back to doing AS2″ and I wish I were in that situation. However, as a freelancer/contractor, I have to support my family, as I imagine you do too (well, not my family, but your’s).
I think Ethan (#1) hits the nail on the head — clients don’t care so long as it looks right and functions right. Most projects are done to last at most a few years, if that. I think Adobe knows where its bread is buttered, and won’t drop player support for AS2 for at least a couple of versions. Bottom line..if (a) it’s cheaper to produce; (b) it produces the correct results; (c) Adobe continues to support it in the player, then AS 2 stuff will continue to be built, not just maintained.
I’m one of many who think that building a “website” doesn’t really a full OOP environment; writing classes, packages and components to do a simple job that takes a couple of days is not really worth the effort(especially if it’s a low budget website).
I can get 10,000 (or more) comments arguing with me about what I’ve just stated. Yet, if you’re not building something BIG, AS2 is a lot easier to manipulate.
That’s just my opinion.
Another reason is the Flash player installed in corporate environments. At my work, we were on Flash 8 forever, and actually thought we were still until we were told the new standard was 9 (don’t remember which version) so our designers kept building AS2 apps while wanting to go to AS3. Others have already brought up the issue of migration and time and cost.