Flash 8.. I wanna play too
So everybody has no doubt seen and heard about Flash 8 and the Studio 8 release. I've been reading everything I can, trying to get ahead of the game with respect to the learning curve adjustment that comes with any new software release. And since I'm not one of the lucky ones out there to be on the beta team, I have to live vicariously through the posts on everyone else's blogs until my copy shows up.
Seems like every post out there has something cool to show, but Mike Downey has also posted "The lesser-known new features of Flash Professional 8 (Part 1)" to his blog, offering up a few more screenshots an less publicized (hence the title of the article) features of the new release. My favorite (and admittedly rather insignificant in the grand scheme) is that the library panel now stays where you left it when you re-launch the application. I cannot tell you how frustrating that has been since the introduced the panel metaphor and the ability to save panel sets. The library IS a panel isn't it? Why wouldn't that save with the rest of the panel settings?? But hey I can shut up about that now... it's fixed. And not only is it fixed...it's enhanced. When you have multiple libraries open they will no longer show in different panels, but rather appear in a select/drop-down box in the library panel, with the ability to 'pin' a library open... very cool! And if your a panel collector like me (I have every fricken panel in my set), you'll like the addition of tabbed panel sets (just like the ones in Dreamweaver).
I can't wait to see what Mike show in part 2!
My only disappointment to this point is the absence of any mention regarding Remoting...oh well at least there's OpenAMF 
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August 10th, 2005 at 6:39 am
I hear that about the remoting. Yeah and more support for webservices.
Spose thats what they sell comunication server for.
August 10th, 2005 at 2:10 pm
“And since I’m not one of the lucky ones…”
No worries, you’re still ahead of the game, consumers haven’t even started getting the new Player yet, you’re on pace….
“… the library panel now stays where you left it ….”
That’s one of the priorities which came up through the extended workflow interviews the company invested in this cycle:
http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/logged_in/jguerard_studio8.html
(For Remoting, if someone asked I don’t think I could list any common themes among improvement requests, from what I read on mailing lists and weblogs… easy sharing of objects across machines has seemed a pretty finite and bounded goal… have you seen consensus on any requests in this area?)
tx, jd/mm
August 10th, 2005 at 7:33 pm
…more support for webservices.
Yeah I had hoped to hear more about an improved XML/Web Services parser etc… but your right, that’s what they’re positioning Flex for. Maybe one day the price for Flex will be affordable
(For Remoting, … have you seen consensus on any requests in this area?)
Consensus??…No…It just seems to have fallen off the planet. If memory serves, the original Macromedia.com redesign was all Remoting and it seemed like there was going to be a big push, then Flex comes out and Remoting is nowhere to be seen. I guess I just assumed there would be some enhancements for Remoting (maybe not even so much on the server components, but on the client side) from a speed, support, client-side components, etc… perspective. It would be nice to see some enhanced components like those found in Flex (they are after all Flash .swc files anyway) that handle datasets and interaction with the data with a tad more care and luster than the current set of components. And what about more along the lines of what the open source alternatives offer, like support for PHP, and honestly just more clear documentation.
Now I should remind myself that I have not gotten my copy of Flash yet, so all of this may be a null issue, but I just haven’t heard anything in this area, so I have to assume for now.
Thank you for the interest though…