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Computer Scientist-Flex Engineering – 09585

Position Summary

The Adobe Flex framework helps people build visually engaging applications that go well beyond what is possible with traditional application development technologies. Every day, Adobe customers worldwide use Flex to build high quality, design oriented, and information rich applications that span smart phones, tablets, web browsers, and desktop environments. Adobe continues to push the envelope in providing solutions for developing and delivering rich multi-screen and multi-platform applications. In this role, you will be part of a focused, energized team that works closely with customers and product teams in the Flex mobile ecosystem to identify and implement functionality that brings the power of Flex to a broad spectrum of mobile devices and platforms.

Responsibilities

• Take ownership of research, design, implementation, and delivery of new features in the Flex framework on mobile devices.
• Work with customers, both internal and external, to understand customer needs.
• Work with the QA group to ensure high quality and rapid turnaround for changes that surface during quality testing.
• Develop adequate documentation at all levels.
• Write unit tests to ensure ongoing correctness of the code.
• Deliver robust, efficient code quickly

Requirements

• Minimum of 3 years of professional software product development experience.
• BS, or equivalent, in Computer Science.
• Experience coding in Java, C++, or ActionScript.
• Excellent object-oriented design skills.
• Proven ability to develop robust, efficient, high-quality code.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Experience in full product development life cycle, from initial planning to first customer release.
• Passion for developing design-oriented applications across multiple screens and device types.

Adobe’s dynamic working environment is well known – including 11 years on FORTUNE magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For”, and other, similar accolades. By hiring the very best and brightest, we continue to be a simply better place to work.

Location: Americas – USW-San Jose (Headquarters)

Schedule: Full-time

name:

when did you first get started with computers/programming? how? why?

My mom’s employer gave her an Apple 2e (it may have been the plus – we had both the plus and the E but I don’t remember which came first). She was supposed to learn computers on it, but I took it over pretty quickly. After playing all the games I could (Ultima 3 is one of the ones I remember the most), I began to look into programming. I mainly did it to cheat at games. (I used a hex editor to edit my Bard’s Tale characters.) Apple’s BASIC was real friendly and fun to write in.

when did you start flash/flex/AIR/AS dev?

I’ve been tangentially involved with Flex since it was still in testing. I’ve never done it full time, but I’ve done projects from time to time and have remained interested in it over the years. I thought it was cool because I was a true believer in the RIA concept and the Flash IDE just didn’t make sense to me. Flex was the perfect mix of code and UX.

are you practicing TDD? why/why not?

Nope. I have not yet adopted testing 100%. Mainly because I tend to do many ad-hoc small projects for blog posts. I believe testing is critical to a project’s success, but I don’t necessarily feel that you have to build the tests first.

what application development frameworks have you used? what’s your favorite?

Only Swiz, and I loved it Because I used Flex off and on, my skills never really took off. When I first worked on a large scale project, Swiz helped me wrap my head around how to build a larger Flex application. I was able to focus on building stuff and not so much on organizing.

have you done any mobile dev using flash/flex/AIR?

Heck yes.

what code editor/IDE do you use? any plugins?

Flash Builder. The only plugin’s I’ve added are a SVN and Git plugin.

what other tools do you use for flash/flex/AIR dev?

Nothing.

what blogs or people on twitter do you follow for flash platform info/news/etc.?

I rarely visit individual blogs on a regular basis. (The exception is Kotaku and io9.) Instead I use flexbloggers.org. It’s an aggregator of over 500 feeds. (And written in ColdFusion using an open source project for blog aggregation.)

I mainly hit video game and Sci Fi sites when I’m doing anything non-technical.

have you attended or are you attending any conferences this year? as a speaker or attendee only?

cfObjective, NCDevCon, MAX, RIA Unleased. Speaking/spoke at all of em. Oh, and I did my first jQuery conference early this year and spoke on jQuery Mobile.

do you have any personal projects that you’d like to share?

See RIAForge (and my answer below).

are you involved with any open source projects you’d like to talk about?

Quite a few. I’ve released a lot of ColdFusion open source and manage RIAForge.org. An OS hosting site for projects making use of Adobe technologies.

what are your thoughts on the rebirth of JavaScript (and the HTML spec/family)?

I think it’s interesting. I have much more confidence in JavaScript than _some_ HTML5 features. I don’t buy into the whole HTML vs Flash argument. To me, it’s a great thing that we’ve got multiple ways to create content.

what version of flex are your working with/targeting? 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5?

4.5.1.

what other programming languages do you know/use?

ColdFusion and jQuery (along with jQuery UI and Mobile).

what do you do when you’re not writing code?

Video games, books, and hanging with my family.

what career/jobs did you have before getting into dev?

This is it. My degree is in English with a minor in Comp Sci. At one time I thought I might be a technical writer, but once I got into web development that was pretty much it.

anything else you’d like to mention? blogs, sites, people, tools?

My blog is coldfusionjedi.com.

if you were trapped alone on an island forever and you could take one thing with… what would it be?

Not a damn thing. I’d take it as an opportunity to start fresh and empty handed.

what are a few of your favorite bands at the moment? what do you listen to while coding?

Mainly anything indie, but I’ll listen to trance too while I code. It depends on how stressed I am at the current time. If I really need to think I’ll switch to classical. Over all my favorite bands are The Cure and Depeche Mode – although I’ve not been terribly happy with them recently. The artist I’m probably most excited about over the past few years is MIA.

what is your favorite animal?

Bacon.

name:

when did you first get started with computers/programming? how? why?

I think I started using computer when I was in third grade.My uncle usually had (still has) loads of cool gadgets which I had access to . My cousin and me used to play games in it all the time. I spent most of my time playing prince of Persia , space invader and a whole lotta stuff. My first programming language was GWBASIC. I think my passion to everything computer began then and it still is strong.

when did you start flash/flex/AIR/AS dev?

I started with flash mx mostly doing timeline animations, making animated slideshow using very little of AS. I think I used only gotoAndPlay() and stop() . ha ha .

are you practicing TDD? why/why not?

No I am not practicing TDD , though I am learning about it and hope to use it soon.

what application development frameworks have you used? what’s your favorite?

I have used SWIZ. Now I am learning robotlegs and I kinda like it and see a lot of potential in it.

have you done any mobile dev using flash/flex/AIR?

Yes I have done few but nothing which paid . I like the idea of mobile social gaming. I always wanted to develop games mostly because I was so into gaming myself . After seeing @terrypaton1 works I have a very strong urge to get into mobile game development now.. Someday soon I will make my own game. For this I see a long learning curve and I am up for the challenge.

what code editor/IDE do you use? any plugins?

At work I use Flex 3 , mainly because it’s a huge ERP to port to the latest versions. I had tried to convince my boss but guess I could convince him . Otherwise I use flex 4.5.1(expires in two weeks *sniff sniff*) to do my mobile projects

what other tools do you use for flash/flex/AIR dev?

Other than Flex , I am big time into PHP .I use notepad++ or Aptana studio for PHP/HTML development

what blogs or people on twitter do you follow for flash platform info/news/etc.?

If I am not asleep I am online on twitter. I read before I go to sleep . I subscribe to load of stuff and try to keep up with the world , that basically quenches my daily tech thirst.

have you attended or are you attending any conferences this year? as a speaker or attendee only?

I attended @adobe_summit this year as an attendee . I would love to attend adobe max but that takes place on the other side of the globe. AND I don’t think I can walk to that place either .

do you have any personal projects that you’d like to share?

I have a bunch of projects but mostly all half cooked and nothing worth mentioning . There is this project which I did a long time back which a few of the carnatic singers use. Its available at http:/bit.ly/shruthibox . This is pretty much one project a few found very useful. I am working on an android / i-phone version soon . This requires some research and I am working on that.

what are your thoughts on the rebirth of JavaScript (and the HTML spec/family)?

Its definitely not a flash killer. Most of the ppl who say it’s a flash killer have little or no idea of AS and the framework. Its like the village head said “No flash!!!! only html/JS” then the entire tribe danced in unison “aaahhhh hooo”. Its really nice that html5 web standards have finally come and I see it staying. When it come to web I guess all these are keys of a piano. Each one has a purpose and using them correctly brings out the best.

what version of flex are your working with/targeting? 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5?

I use Flex 3 at work .

what other programming languages do you know/use?

I use PHP for backend . I know a little of other web technologies which helps me in deploying stuff and getting the work done.

what do you do when you’re not writing code?

When not writing code I’m learning how to write better code :p . I play PC games ,music and yeah at times I get a book to read.

if you were trapped alone on an island forever and you could take one thing with… what would it be?

WOW .. forever is a long time. I don’t think it’s a good idea to be stuck in an island . But if that island has free 100mbps wifi , KFC , a nice lawn chair , then I’ll take my laptop he he ….

what are a few of your favorite bands at the moment? what do you listen to while coding?

I don follow any band in particular. The song and the volume at which I play it depends on my mood but when I am coding I am always listening to something.

what is your favorite animal?

Chicken ? wait !! yeah that doesn’t sound wrong . he he ..

Professional Flash Mobile Development: Creating Android and iPhone Applications

Everything Flash developers need to know to create native Android and iPhone apps.

This Wrox guide shows Flash developers how to create native applications for Android and iPhone mobile devices using Flash. Packed with practical examples, it shows how to build a variety of apps and integrate them with core mobile services such as Accelerometer, GPS, Photo Library,and more.

• Offers Flash developers the tools to create apps for the Android and iPhone mobile devices
• Shows how to design a user interface optimized for Android and iOS and offers plenty of examples for building native Android and iPhone apps with Flash, migrating existing Flash media, testing and debugging applications, and more
• Helps you understand ways to work with files on Android and iOS

Flash Mobile: Developing Android and iOS Applications

Build rich media applications for the iOS and Android platforms with this primer to Flash mobile development. You get all of the essentials-from setting up your development environment to publishing your apps to the Google Market Place/Apple iTunes App Store.

Develop elementary applications without coding; then realize the power of ActionScript 3 to add rich complexity to your applications. Step-by-step instruction is combined with practical tutorial lessons to deliver a working understanding of the development stages including:

• Rapid prototyping
• Adding interactivity, audio, and video
• Employing iOS and Android Interface Calls
• Hardware optimization with AIR
• Game development; game engines, controlling physics, and 3D
• Designing for iPad, Android tablets, and Google TV
• Code optimization, testing, and debugging
• Publication within weeks of Adobe’s release of the Android packaging utilities Full-color illustrations of UI and design implementations *Companion website with tutorial media and author forum

User interfaces are presented in full color to illustrate their nuances. The companion websiteincludes all of the AS3 code, project files, and a blog to keep you up to date with related news and developments.

Android Development with Flash: Your visual blueprint for developing mobile apps

The Android operating system works on phones that combine a camera, Web browser, e-mail, GPS, and mapping tool into a single accessible pocket-sized unit, and can function on computers, as well. Aimed at visual learners and packed with hundreds of screen shots, this guide brings Flash developers up to speed on the necessary factors to take into account when developing for this touch-based, mobile platform. Experienced Flash developer Julian Dolce escorts you through the process of creating applications for the Android OS using the Flash CS5 development platform and informs you of best practices to try as well as common pitfalls to avoid.

• Guides you step by step through the process of creating applications for the Android OS using Flash CS5
• Explores the capabilities and limitations of developing apps for the Android OS
• Points out common pitfalls and teaches you best practices
• Features hundreds of screen shots to assist with visual learning

Android Development with Flash: Your visual blueprint for developing mobile apps gets you on your way to developing apps for Android… in a flash!

Pro Android Flash Games: Developing Flash Game Apps for Android-based Smartphones and Tablets

iPhone does not support Flash in the app store, but don’t despair…Android does! In today’s mobile marketplace, games are one of the most popular and money making apps out there. And Flash enables some interesting games on Android, for both smartphones and tablets.

Pro Android Flash Games: Developing Flash Game Apps for Android-based Smartphones and Tablets lets you take your Flash game development skills mobile as you learn the latest in Android development using the Adobe AIR SDK, Flash CS and Flash Builder tools.

If you’ve ever dreamed of creating games for the fastest growing mobile operating system, Google Android, then this book is for you. Whether you’ve dabbled in ActionScript 3, or worked with Flash Professional or Flash Builder, this book shows you how to create compelling mobile games for Android smartphones and tablets.

• Create compelling mobile games that leverage device capabilities such as the accelerometer, gyroscope, and multi-touch.
• Design games to work well across multiple screen sizes.
• Identify ways to monetize your app through competitive pricing, ads, or in-app purchases.

After reading and using this book and its rich code, you come away with the ability to build fun, commercial Flash game apps that can also make you some money, too.

Getting Started with Arduino and Flex/AS3 Development (by: Sean Moore)

This presentation will explain what the Arduino is, how it’s used and why it’s used. The session will cover how and where to obtain the hardware and software needed for Arduino development with and without Flex and AS3. It will also demonstrate a basic LED blinking example, a temperature sensor example and a PIR motion sensor example. The session will also explain how to get as3glue and serproxy working on your system to enable Arduino circuit development with Flex and AS3.

Here’s the live recording (Connect session) of the preso

Here’s the PPT of the slides and a PDF of the slides

Here’s the schematic to build the PIR Motion Sensor circuit

Here’s also a Fritzing schematic for the PIR Motion Sensor circuit. You can get Fritzing here.

My presentation can be found here in the original listing on the FlexMania site for proof and/or historical purposes: http://www.flexmania.com.br/gravacoes.php

Oh, and a MASSIVE, MASSIVE shout to Igor Costa for inviting me to present at the conference and THANK YOU to everyone who attended!!!!

Happy Arduino’ing everyone!!!

name:

when did you start flash/flex/AIR/AS dev?
That’s really good question I started to play around with Flash back in high school not sure what version it was but back them it was under Macromedia and it was all about creating little animations and experimenting no one really new what OOP was just gotoAndPlay.

are you practicing TDD? why/why not?
I’m really not sure why I would ever want to do Test-driven development, I see the benefits in it but for my development style I think it would over complicate things. I think you should create cool things and worry about the rest later.

what application development frameworks have you used? what’s your favorite?
I have played around with a number frameworks but the ones that I used for real projects are PureMVC, RobotLegs and for games PushButton engine and Flixel. I really like RobotLegs and it seems to be the one that I’m using the most lately but I do think PureMVC has some advantages over RobotLegs.

have you done any mobile dev using flash/flex/AIR?
Yes I created my first app US.Gov.Index with Flash in the pre release program it was more of a demo app to learn but I just re did it from the ground up using the Flex Mobile I’m really happy with the outcome I also have my first client project which will be done using Flex Mobile. You can view info on the app on my site – http://www.almogdesign.net/portfolio/us-gov-index/

what code editor/IDE do you use? any plugins?
I use Flash Builder 4.5 for Flash and Flex the only plugin that I have is Flex Formatter, I’m currently working a lot in PHP, JS and HTML/CSS so using NetBeans which is amazing.

what other tools do you use for flash/flex/AIR dev?
I use the Flash IDE to create assets .swc’s the standard CS5 collection Photoshop, Illustrator and Balsamiq Mockups for wireframing.

what blogs or people on twitter do you follow for flash platform info/news/etc.?
So I follow a lot of people on Twitter and every now and then check out a number of blogs Smashing Magazine is a big one but mostly check out links that are shared, I’m also very active on Google+ which I’m finding is much better then Twitter.

have you attended or are you attending any conferences this year? as a speaker or attendee only?
I spoke at Flash Israel 2011 not sure I can count that as I organized the event I also spoke at the annual GameIS event and Game Uncon event both in Israel I have had the opportunity to speak at smaller events from user groups to small tech events, which is great and why I’m very active in the community. I try to attend just about everything locally especially the games and stat up events.

do you have any personal projects that you’d like to share?
I’m currently working on a really cool project/start-up for game developers called Scoreoid its an advanced web platform for leaderboards and game management I’m in private beta and the feedback has been really great. You can check it out at www.scoreoid.net

what are your thoughts on the rebirth of JavaScript (and the HTML spec/family)?
The never ending question, the truth is that I started off as a JS/web developers that was my main focus in school and was my first job at waves.com, I got into Flash because JS, HTML and CSS was limited back then and when I say back then that’s not to long ago. For me code is just syntax its all about choosing the right tool for the right job I’m not a Flash developer but an interactive developer. Lately I have been working in PHP for Scoreoid which has been fun if tomorrow I need to code in JS that’s fine. I love Flash and don’t see myself not using it I also like the idea that somethings well not be done in Flash anymore while others will be.

what version of flex are your working with/targeting? 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5?
It really depends on the project old project are 3/3.5 while new ones are 4.5

what other programming languages do you know/use?
That’s a great question this last year I have been learning noting but languages instead of creating cool stuff I think at some point learning every new language is a waste of time find what you like and stick with it who cares what everyone is says I’m getting pretty tired with all the link baiting posts. I personally code in AS3, Flex, PHP and basic web stuff JS, HTML/CSS which I really don’t consider that complex but basic stuff every programmer should learn. I can code a little native C#, Java and Objective C but don’t consider myself as a developer for those languages even thought I ported US.Gov.Index to Windows Phone 7 native and yes Microsoft paid me to do it.

what do you do when you’re not writing code?
Lately been working out I also scuba dive and go spear finishing. I attend pretty much every community event, meetup or conference I can get to and there are a lot in Israel especially the start up events which are always amazing.

anything else you’d like to mention? blogs, sites, people, tools?
I have a blog which is not very active hope to fix that soon – http://www.almogdesign.net/blog/
And you can find me on Twitter @almogdesign or Google+ http://bit.ly/oEGHlD

name:

when did you start flash/flex/AIR/AS dev?

I began using Flash here and there in 1999/2000 with Macromedia Flash 4. Previous to that, I was mainly doing straight HTML and a bunch of design work; Photoshop, Illustrator, 35mm photography, and photo compositing. What drew me to Flash was that I could take pieces from all of those areas and use them together in a meaningful way. I think everyone coming to Flash from that angle remembers the first simple animation they created and how outstanding the feeling of publishing your first swf was. It was magical for me.

I actually didn’t get involved in Flex until Flex 2 and ActionScript 3.0. I was doing a lot of work with AS2 before this using Flash Professional, and AS3 was made available in Flex Builder before Flash because it was built into the SDK. I tried out Flex but it didn’t click for me- so I used the Flex SDK to write AS3 using FlashDevelop for a time. This is how I learned AS3. By the time AS3 was available in Flash Pro… I was already set

What eventually “forced” me into Flash Builder and Flex was the ability to write AIR applications and the tooling built into Flex Builder 3. I was using the Apollo alphas and had a few projects at the university where I was pushing the technology. The first AIR project we deployed was actually an Apollo project a day before – so we were really on the bleeding edge! Anyhow- using Flex for AIR apps got me to appreciate the framework for use in other projects… saw the obvious benefits of using Flex Builder over Flash Pro for writing code… Flex framework makes a lot of layout and structural underpinnings so simple – so I stuck with it. I do go to Flash Pro for certain things now and again, but Flash Builder and Flex are primary for me now.

are you practicing TDD? why/why not?

No… I’m not. I understand the benefits and have made numerous attempts to integrate the practice into my workflow, but as it stands now I’m just a total failure with TDD! With most things though, I find that my initial set of attempts are often crash-and-burn exercises. At some point, it will all come into place and I just have to work toward that moment. The problem right now is that much of what I do is systems maintenance and planning – so am not as actively involved in any solid development starters at the moment.

what application development frameworks have you used? what’s your favorite?

The Adobe Flex Framework

Well… I’ve definitely looked at other frameworks and micro-architectures. A lot of people seem to like RobotLegs and I’ve done some beginner exercises with that to get concepts down – but have not attempted anything in a real project yet.

have you done any mobile dev using flash/flex/AIR?

Yes. Mostly experiments for projects like my “Flash Development for Android Cookbook”, but have also written some applications for Android that are available in the Market. These include; Sketch-N-Save, AXNA Feed Reader, My Shit-List!, Transient Recorder, and others. I’m in the middle of writing a mobile Flex application for the university right now which should (eventually) be available across multiple platforms. It taps into the university media management system to provide users with direct access to video, image, and audio materials along with associated metadata records for their mobile devices. It’s in beta for Android, and once we get that solid will look at publishing for iOS and perhaps event BlackBerry Tablet OS. We’ll see what use may dictate.

what code editor/IDE do you use? any plugins?

Primarily Flash Builder – no plugins. I also launch Flash Professional from time to time to work on legacy projects and perform specific functionality that is better suited to that environment. I have used FDT and FlashDevelop on occasion… and as mentioned before, actually learned AS3 on FlashDevelop.
what other tools do you use for flash/flex/AIR dev?

I use the entire Adobe Creative Suite for my work. Well, almost the entire suite. Also tools like Lightroom for my photography. Lightroom is awesome.

With Flex projects, I’ll often use a graphics package like Photoshop or whatnot to create any image assets needed, sometimes will design skinning elements in that or Illustrator/Fireworks depending upon my mood. I do my FXG work within Flash Catalyst and copy/paste into Flash Builder. XML, HTML, and such usually gets edited in Dreamweaver. Audition for audio assets, video stuff is covered by Premier Pro/After Effects… really try and use the full suite if the project allows it.

what blogs or people on twitter do you follow for flash platform info/news/etc.?

I generally don’t follow specific blogs but rely on Twitter for most of my information and news. Too many people to mention, but you can have a look at who I follow and interact with for a good idea! As a general rule, if you are an AEL, ACP, or Adobian who follows me… I will follow you back! Also – if you are doing other interesting non-Adobe-specific stuff (Unity, experimental HTML/CSS/JS, other crazy stuff), that is cool and will probably peak my interest!

I just beg everyone on Twitter to please make it apparent who you are and where your interests lie – makes it much easier to follow back that way. I try my best not to be a Twitter-snob so the best way to get my attention is to ENGAGE

have you attended or are you attending any conferences this year? as a speaker or attendee only?

Yes… *deep breath*.

A lot of conference activity this year… too much! I started off the year doing three different Adobe User Group presentations on BlackBerry PlayBook development (Columbus Digital, LA Flash, and KCDevCore).

In March I took a break from technical presentations and did a spark session for Ignite Denver 8 on personal branding. In case you are unfamiliar with Ignite – many cities around the world host these events. Speakers have 5 minutes and 20 slides to talk about any subject they choose… and the slides auto-advance on a timer It’s a really interesting way to present and Ignite Denver pulls around 400 people, so you get a pretty big crowd.

I attended 360|Flex in Denver this year and wasn’t going to do any presentations myself, but the local Adobe User Group, RMAUG, had a slot open and I threw together an hour long session on “Getting Down n’ Dirty with Mobile Flex 4.5 Projects” which went really well for being a last minute gig. Since Adobe released Flash Builder 4.5 that morning, the topic was timely and I’d been working on the prerelease versions of the tooling for months (not to mention materials for my book which was still in tech-review at this point). It was a good session. Jun Heider was moderating a panel in the evening one night called “Open Screen Project: Views from the Trenches” and I also contributed to that. They tried to record the panel but I’m not quite sure if the recording was ever released.

In June, I did another Ignite session for Ignite Denver 9 called “Zombies, Vampires, and Babies: What You NEED to Know!”. It basically revolved around comparisons of babies with the undead and was really well received. I enjoy doing the Ignite stuff but will probably have to skip out on Ignite Denver 10 in September because of other obligations. Next year!

In July, I was very fortunate to have been accepted to speak at Dee Sadler’s excellent D2W (Designer/Developer/Workflow) conference in Kansas City. My session “Adapting Expectations to Fit a Mobile Workflow” revolved around mobile once again but with an emphasis on workflow and the considerations that go along with that. The amount of killer speakers at this conference is astounding – all great sessions.

A few weeks later, I attended the Adobe Education Leader Institute at Adobe HQ in San Jose for the 3rd year. This is a week-long conference for AELs and is always a blast. We get to interface with product managers, engineers, and executives… all sorts of interesting people- including other AELs from around the world. During the event; I moderated a panel on Adobe Edge, did a 5-minute presentation on custom context menus in AS3, and presented a hands-on session which covered the basics of developing a mobile AIR application using Flash Builder and mobile Flex. One of the cool things this year is that Adobe opened up many of the sessions to the outside world over Connect – so we were able to have an expanded audience.

The last set of sessions for the Summer were done for the COLTT conference in Boulder, Colorado. I presented a full session called “Mobile computing in a ‘Post-PC’ era… right?” in which the current state of mobile computing in education was discussed, and that evening spoke at the Café Pédagogique event on the necessity (or not) of institutional mobile applications.

Upcoming speaking engagements will all be during the Adobe MAX event in Los Angeles. I’ll be presenting a scheduled MAX session called “From Desktop to Mobile: Application Functionality for Small Screens” on Tuesday at 4:00pm and will be doing a condensed, modified version of this same talk for the Adobe Education pre-conference day. I’m also scheduled to speak on mobile UX during the FITC unconference and have scheduled a session on BlazeDS, Flex, and Java/Spring for the 360|MAX unconference. A full schedule for sure!

do you have any personal projects that you’d like to share?

Sure! I’ll be writing about this further down the question stack though.

are you involved with any open source projects you’d like to talk about?

Not really. I do plan on open sourcing the codebase for my DropFolders application this Summer. This is an application that I built to both showcase the native process functionality in AIR 2.0, and as an application for use by less technically inclined members of the university community who wanted to encode video with no real fuss.
The app is basically a GUI for the HandBrake CLI and includes the ability to set up sets of monitored directories and outputs with custom encoding parameters. Almost no one at the university is using it, but it has gained a pretty large user base in the wider world. Unfortunately, my time is limited and as such cannot continue to support the application… hence my desire to open up the source code for others to build off of.

what are your thoughts on the rebirth of JavaScript (and the HTML spec/family)?

It’s good to see HTML finally evolving to more closely match the needs of modern browser-based projects. JavaScript, unfortunately hasn’t really changed much apart for some new APIs that come along with the HTML5 spec and an increased number of frameworks (like jQuery) to make JS development a little less painful. I was really hoping that JavaScript would adopt the ECMAScript 4 proposal put forth about 5 years ago (the same spec that AS3 was originally based off of) but sadly it never did. So we are stuck with the same old JS that I used when I started doing web development over a decade ago! Unbelievable.

I have to say something about HTML/CSS/JS and Flash here. This is the same thing I’ve been saying for years but it is worth repeating. HTML and Flash have worked hand-in-hand for their entire history and there is no reason that this will change with an evolved HTML spec. No reason at all. The fact that some basic animation can now be done using HTML/CSS/JS in no way renders Flash obsolete as the platform has such reach now that simple animation on the web is not really a concern for really any of the Flash devs I talk to on a regular basis. If you need some simple animation on a website- by all means use HTML/CSS/JS to accomplish that if it is appropriate to do so.

Two things that have really irked me about this whole debate has been the public condemnation of Flash by Apple (this sort of corporate assault is unheard of) and the renewed antagonism toward Flash developers by people using other technologies (though mostly from the JS side of things). Apple has taken an anti-Flash stance and has made it official company policy. There is nothing we can do about that but hope they eventually reverse the policy. Individual developers, however, are a different story entirely. Isn’t the web about freedom? We have a variety of choices when deciding which technologies to employ atop the basic HTML/CSS/JS web stack. The HTML5 spec has the embed tag for a reason – to expand upon this basic set of technologies with other platforms. There is nothing wrong with that. Unity, Flash, Java, Silverlight, Shockwave… whatever is an appropriate use of technology should be accepted. Yes, if you choose to use something outside the “standard” set of browser-based tech, you may not be able to access that content on all devices in the world. This is nothing new. People need to realize this, gain some perspective, and get over their narrow-minded view of the web. It’s big enough for everyone to play

In short; be nice to one another and accepting of other technologies and platforms. And if you disagree with a particular technology… please refrain from being a total smarmy douche about it.

what version of flex are your working with/targeting? 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5?

Aside from legacy projects, I always target the latest version of Flex. We generally don’t have any restrictions at the university level when it comes to this so it is rarely a problem… though we do evaluate such things on a project-to-project basis.

what other programming languages do you know/use?

Flash/Flex/AS3 is my core but I have rarely met a Flash dev who only works within the confines of the platform. This is probably due to the history of Flash Player in the web browser- which necessitates that a developer knows at least some HTML, JavaScript, and ideally a few backend server technologies. As for myself, this includes ColdFusion, PHP, MySQL, HTML, CSS, Zinc, JavaScript, FMS, a little JSP, a bit of ASP, BlazeDS, and a smattering of other languages as the need arises.

Flash is a gateway drug. Once you have a grasp on a few of these things and a willingness to read the docs, nothing is really all that hard to pick up. I really want to pick up C# but haven’t come across a project that necessitates it yet. I may have to just come up with a personal project sometime over the next year or so to experiment. Finding the time to do this while staying abreast of changes and additions to my core toolset is tough- but can be done.

With all of that said though… I absolutely prefer to work in Flash. It’s solid, proven technology that can do just about anything you need. It is an absolute joy to work with where other tech can be a painful experience!

what do you do when you’re not writing code?

I’ve been writing a lot of articles and books lately. My “Flash Development for Android Cookbook” has been out for around six weeks now and is beginning to get some really good reviews. I’m also in the middle of writing some short eBooks for O’Reilly which should be out in October and am in the planning stages of another print book with my primary publisher, Packt, for publication in 2012. There’s also a short, 48-page book that I wrote to accompany the set of mobile Flash development DVDs that I recorded with Peter Elst and video2brain a few months back for Adobe Press and Peachpit. This collection should be available something this month. A smaller workshop of new Flash Builder and Flex stuff with video2brain was actually just published and is available now.

I’m almost always involved in teaching a variety of courses for the University of Denver as adjunct faculty. These courses range from beginning Flash and AS3 to web graphic design with Fireworks and PHP development. A real variety in materials… I actually did a special topics workshop this Summer on mobile Flash and Flex which just concluded. That was interesting! The students built a lot of interesting apps and I received really good feedback about the course.

Apart from my work at the university, I also run a small technical consultancy and production company from my home called Fractured Vision Media, LLC. We do a variety of projects for clients both local to Denver and as far away as Seattle – mostly Flash and AIR work but it varies. With the amount of writing I’ve gotten myself into lately, I’ve been trying to cut down on the amount of active clients we take on. It’s a rough balance.

FVM is also a small record label which I leverage when publishing audio recordings as my experimental darkambient alter-ego – “An Early Morning Letter, Displaced”. I’ve been working in music production through this project for over a decade and have released five different albums of music (2 lp, 3 ep) during that time. FVM has also released a free collection of music collected from the developer community called “Emergent Collective One” which contains a stellar set of varied material. I keep meaning to organize a second volume but time has not been kind to me this year.

I have a wife and two small daughters as well… so always need to find time for them. It’s difficult with all of these other things going on and I may have to cut back on some of this work in 2012 in order to retain some level of sanity.

anything else you’d like to mention? blogs, sites, people, tools?

I’ll list some resources and sites that I’ve mentioned above here, but want to note a few things first; primarily, thanks for giving me the opportunity to do this interview! I love this series of developer interviews- so informative to read others perspectives on these things. Second, I’m writing this on a long airplane session… stuck in a seat for hours… with no one to hear my screams… so to be able to just work through these questions has been quite welcome! This probably accounts for the length of my answers as well – if anyone is able to get through reading the entire interview- good on you!

Links:
- JosephLabrecque.com
http://josephlabrecque.com
- Twitter Profile
http://twitter.com/JosephLabrecque
- In Flagrante Delicto!
http://inflagrantedelicto.memoryspiral.com
- Flash Development for Android Cookbook
https://www.packtpub.com/flash-development-for-android-cookbook/book
- Mobile Development with Flash Professional CS5.5 and Flash Builder 4.5: Learn by Video
http://www.adobepress.com/bookstore/product.asp?isbn=0321788109
- Adobe Flash Builder and Flex 4.5: New Features Workshop
http://www.video2brain.com/en/products-161.htm
- Fractured Vision Media, LLC
http://fracturedvisionmedia.com/
- Emergent Collective One
http://fracturedvisionmedia.com/FVM005/

what’s your favorite animal?
Dragon. I am a dragon.

name:

when did you start flash/flex/AIR/AS dev?

in 2004, i started learning flash through evening classes from RISD’s continuing education department, and was delighted to discover actionscript. i had just completed a software engineering certificate at the harvard extension school (using mostly java), and actionscript really clicked with my desire to work on the front end and make interesting visual things happen through code. when i exhausted the local knowledge (which was pretty fast – RISD didn’t have a lot of programming teachers), i turned to gotoAndLearn and then lynda. then in 2007 i had the great opportunity to work in joey lott’s group at schematic, and learned flex 2 on the job for my first client project. air (or apollo, at that point) was in alpha, and joey was approached about writing a book on it. he shared the opportunity with our team, and so between writing my chapters and reviewing those of my co-authors, i developed a pretty solid understanding of AIR during its pre-release.

are you practicing TDD? why/why not?

i’m embarrassed to admit that i’m not. it’s on my long, long list of things to learn.

what application development frameworks have you used? what’s your favorite?

for architectural frameworks, back at schematic we mostly used cairngorm, and at litl we used robotlegs. robotlegs worked well for us, but i’m not really equipped to compare its strengths and weaknesses against other frameworks. without a doubt though, frameworks are worth the time it takes to learn them. no matter which one(s) you pick, it’s really helpful for a whole team to understand the code’s organization and wires, so that anyone can jump in on anyone else’s project and know that they’re doing.

have you done any mobile dev using flash/flex/AIR?

right now i’m learning flex iOS development, so just doing a lot of little hello world sort of experiments, kicking the tires and getting a feel for it. i have a specific app in mind to build, and need to figure out whether i can do what i want in flex, or whether it would be better to do it in objective C. it would be so convenient for me to build the app this way, because my flex is stronger than my objective c, but ultimately i’ll use whatever is the right tool for the job.

what code editor/IDE do you use? any plugins?

i use flash builder 4.5. at litl, we used the flexformatter and any edit plugins to auto-format code on save. we just distributed a stylesheet to everyone on the team, and they configured their plugins properly, and it blissfully removed superficial code-formatting criticism from any of our discussions about blocks of code. it also allowed us to use tooling for code reviews, ensuring that the diffs showed only code changes and were not sullied up by any extraneous formatting changes.

i also have an intelliJ IDEA license, but learning how to make the most of it is another item on that long skill-building wishlist.

what other tools do you use for flash/flex/AIR dev?

git, git tower, github, and google code reviews.

what blogs or people on twitter do you follow for flash platform info/news/etc.?

there’s so much news out there, i definitely battle information overload. there are so many different possible specializations within web and mobile. so my advice to anyone is just to seek out the people writing about the stuff that matters most to them, and ignore the rest. lately i’m really interested in the careers and experiences of women developers, so most of the blogs i’ve discovered in the past year are from that research.

have you attended or are you attending any conferences this year? as a speaker or attendee only?

i’ve spoken at a few conferences in the last year or so, including flash and the city, the fits unconference at adobe max, and ria unleashed. this may i spoke about code review at multi-mania in belgium, and in september i’m doing an elevator pitch at flash on the beach in brighton. i’ll have only three minutes to hook the audience on code review! it’s a good challenge.

on the maybe list for this year are the decoded conference in munich in october, and flash unplugged in london in november. next spring, i definitely hope to attend beyond tellerand in cologne. of course there are a lot of great conferences in the US, but without having expenses paid through an employer, i’ll probably only be crossing the pond for conferences which pay speaker travel and lodging expenses.

applying to conferences makes me feel really vulnerable. you send your proposal out and then either get accepted or rejected, with no feedback. if i were ever to run a conference, i think i’d try to write at least one or two sentences along with each rejection, giving the developer some tips about how to improve their chances for the future.

do you have any personal projects that you’d like to share?

i’ve been working on a series of interviews of women developers for ria rockstars. this project grew out of my frustration at not having other women role models, which i didn’t think of as much of a problem when i started out, but became painfully obvious when i had a baby. i’ve never seen a male programmer take more than two weeks of parental leave – certainly never three months or more. and when they return to work, they are not navigating the same physical demands that women have on their bodies during the baby’s first year. around then i was speaking at a conference, and it just so happened that there was another speaker there who’d had a baby at about the same time i did. i asked her how she balanced career and motherhood, and she shared that she had switched to working part-time. this was a revelation for me – that maybe in order to stay sane i was going to need to forge a new path for my career, that didn’t look like the one most guys take. the idea, or permission, to reduce my hours felt like such a breath of fresh air… but i also began to worry about how to keep my career momentum and the respect of my colleagues. i’m still answering those questions for myself, and want to make sure the next generation has access to the answers that i and others find. so i interview other women developers. and every time one shares her story, i find myself voraciously re-reading it and finding so many parts of it that i can relate to. teasing out these stories, and sharing them back with the larger community feels like some of the most genuine work i’ve done in a long time, and i feel lucky to be in a position to do it.

what version of flex are your working with/targeting? 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5?

4.5. but i’m just me, playing around, not restricted by client needs.

what other programming languages do you know/use?

well, i trained in java, though that was ten years ago, and in order to do anything interesting with it i’d have to learn some new tricks. but who knows, maybe it will come in handy for android development. my schooling also involved C and unix shell scripting, and while i don’t use those at all, i’m really glad to understand pointers and memory management and to be comfortable at the command line.

what do you do when you’re not writing code?

currently, this is most of the time. since moving to germany this spring for my husband’s job, i’m a stay-at-home mom to my toddler son. it’s a way more physically intensive, emotionally draining, and ultimately more rewarding job than software development. i’m also learning german, studying up for my driver’s license, finishing setting up our apartment. i have some weird german tenant responsibilities like sweeping the stairwell, and collecting apples that fall from the pair of trees in our yard. i regularly shop at the outdoor market and cook with a lot of fresh vegetables, which i feel is so important for my wellbeing. and in calm moments after my son goes to sleep, if i have any energy left, i play a few songs on my guitar.

i’m really thankful to have the chance to take a pause, and slow down from the startup/agency pace. but it won’t last forever, so i’ve also started trying to scope out the local tech scene and see if there are any companies doing interesting web/mobile work around here – or any cool american companies for which i should consider working remotely.

anything else you’d like to mention? blogs, sites, people, tools?

my urls:
blog: http://flashonista.org
twitter: http://twitter.com/krotondo
google+: https://plus.google.com/105115259145511474643/

name:

when did you start flash/flex/AIR/AS dev?

I first started working with Flash around 1999 using Flash 4, first adding “flashy pieces” to HTML sites and eventually starting to create small apps and video players. I didn’t start Flex until Flex 2 beta. I remember seeing MXML previews for Flex 1 beta and knew back then it was the future of enterprise Flash development, but the server requirements were not appealing at the time. I immediately jumped on the AIR wagon during AIR 1 beta and haven’t stopped since!

are you practicing TDD? why/why not?

We recently started applying test driven development to our projects at almer/blank. It was a difficult transition at first, it would be dishonest to say doing TDD is easy, or that adopting is going to make you create better software overnight. But armed with great resources like Roy Osherove’s “The Art of Unit Testing” and his articles, Robert Martin’s “Clean Code”, and awesome libraries like FlexUnit and Mockolate the transition has been one I wish I would have done sooner. I’m still learning to write better tests and more testable code, but I like the benefits it has brought to my development process and the software that I make.

what application development frameworks have you used? what’s your favorite?

Up until around 2004-2005 I was still working with no application frameworks but was starting to try and use MVC architectures in my applications. Right around 2006 I started working with PureMVC and that has been my main framework since. I’ve recently been trying out Robotlegs with the help of a prerelease copy of Stray’s book “ActionScript Developer’s Guide to Robotlegs”. I’ve also worked with portions of spicelib, mainly the Task framework which is incredibly handy for managing tasks. As of right now, 7/29/2011, my favorite framework is still PureMVC, although I use it with a plugin for it I made called SignalsCircuit to use Robert Penner’s as3Signals to replace PureMVC’s notification system. I do have to say, though, that there are some things I am really liking about Robotlegs so far, but I’m not 100% converted… yet.

have you done any mobile dev using flash/flex/AIR?

I’ve done mobile dev with Flex on Android and PlayBook. I’ve found mobile dev with Flex to be rather easy. The part that most complaints come from are dealing with poor deployment/debugging procedures like with the PlayBook and iOS, or with the lack of access to some of the APIs that developers want access to in order to create fully rich mobile applications.

what code editor/IDE do you use? any plugins?

I am still a Flash Builder user. I’ve tried IntelliJ, and I’ve tried FDT. I still use Flash Builder as my main workhorse, but I need to have SourceMate 3 installed with it. I also use FlexFormatter to keep code formatting consistent throughout our dev team, it really makes it nice when all code is formatted the same on a team. I dont use eGit, it wasn’t ready when I last tried it and I really like using Tower on my Mac or just CLI.

what other tools do you use for flash/flex/AIR dev?

When I do AMF development I use a tool I made called PlugrMan, it helps me tests AMF methods as I write PHP. I use Charles for debugging web traffic, and Wireshark to debug port traffic if I’m working with sockets on something, Wireshark most likely has support for it. I don’t like using “trace” tools like SOS or MonsterDebugger, I just make a debug class that I call a trace(“”) method in so I can comment it out quickly and I monitor my traces with Terminal using the tail -f command on the Flash log. Don’t think I have any other tools I use besides that.

what blogs or people on twitter do you follow for flash platform info/news/etc.?

I used to read a lot of blogs, but I don’t read as many blogs as I used to. Most of my tech info comes from the Twitter-verse from people like you (@seantheflexguy), @stray_and_ruby, @royosherove, and many more of the awesome devs I follow on my Twitter list. I wouldn’t know 1/2 of what is going on in the Flash and tech world in general without Twitter.

have you attended or are you attending any conferences this year? as a speaker or attendee only?

No conferences this year, yet. I will be speaking at the FiTC Unconference at MAX this year on working with PlugrMan!

do you have any personal projects that you’d like to share?

Right now the two main projects I’m working on when I’m not working on client projects for work are PlugrMan and MongoAS3, one commercial and one open source. I am big on writing tools for development. I have several tools that will probably never see the light of day that I’ve used on and off throughout my development career. A lot of them are quickies that I make to accomplish repetitive tasks that don’t have very pretty interfaces but get the job required done. That’s really where PlugrMan came from… it started off as something I started to build to start testing AMFPHP services.

are you involved with any open source projects you’d like to talk about?

I have lots of open source pieces of code on my GitHub account (http://github.com/s9tpepper). I think the most popular of projects I’ve been involved with on the open source side of things are the PureMVC PHP port I wrote along with Hasan Otuome (@heroizm) and recently the MongoDB AS3 driver MongoAS3 (http://github.com/s9tpepper/MongoAS3). I can’t wait to be able to contribute to the Flex SDK via the Spoon project (http://spoon.as).

what are your thoughts on the rebirth of JavaScript (and the HTML spec/family)?

Honestly, I really don’t care much about what is going on in the JavaScript world. I’m more interested in building robust enterprise Flex applications, games, and any kind of interactive experience that is going to be on multiple screens. The browser’s cool, but there’s so much more in programming than the confines of a web browser.

what version of flex are your working with/targeting? 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5?

I’m almost always working with the most recent version of Flex, so currently I’m writing for Flex 4.5. No old projects on my plate right now, so all latest and greatest!

what other programming languages do you know/use?

I use PHP/SQL quite often, but not as much as I used to. I did HTML/JS from 96-2000ish, since I started doing Flash I only use it when I absolutely have to (to embed my Flash SWFs mainly).

what do you do when you’re not writing code?

I like to play my bass guitar and mess around with GarageBand. I watch a lot of basketball, although right now the next season isn’t looking like its going to happen. If I’m not doing one of those two things I’m either trying to think up what I want to code next or hanging out with my girlfriend.

what’s your favorite animal?

Liger.

name:

when did you start flash/flex/AIR/AS dev?

I have been a developer since 2001 and started working in the Flash Player since 2004

are you practicing TDD? why/why not?

I stated using more TDD this year. It is proven to be a great way to prove functionality and help better seperate logic from views in Flash.

what application development frameworks have you used? what’s your favorite?

I started with Cairngorm back in the day, switched to PureMVC for a while but started using Parsley on every project this year. I found it’s better at separation on concerns and that also helps with TDD.

have you done any mobile dev using flash/flex/AIR?

A little but looks like I will be doing more. Clients ask about it all the time and app development on platforms such as phones and tablets seems to be the way things are going for us guys that build RIA’s and such.

what code editor/IDE do you use? any plugins?

I use FDT the most. I find that it has the most features that allow me to customize my workflow and speed up development.

what other tools do you use for flash/flex/AIR dev?

Flash IDE, Photoshop for asset creation, De MonsterDebugger, also been playing around with sprouts (ruby gem for working on flash development)

what blogs or people on twitter do you follow for flash platform info/news/etc.?

http://www.theflashblog.com

http://twitter.com/matthewswallace/companies

http://twitter.com/matthewswallace/flash-peeps

what are your thoughts on the rebirth of JavaScript (and the HTML spec/family)?

There is a lot of really awesome stuff out there and I am sure we will see even more awesomeness. As flash developers we are in a great position to learn and push HTML and JavaScript to new and exciting levels.

what version of flex are your working with/targeting? 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5?

I have developed in Flex since version 3 and do my best to work in the latest version. The last few projects and current work are all in Flex 4 and above.

what other programming languages do you know/use?

Java, Ruby, Javascript are others that I use on a regular bases. I find that I can develop in just any language. A developer is a developer right?!

what do you do when you’re not writing code?

Solve the problem in the most reusable way possible.

anything else you’d like to mention? blogs, sites, people, tools?

Places you can find me.

http://mattwallace.me

http://twitter.com/matthewswallace

http://gplus.to/mattwallace