Site Admin
Joined: 11 Jul 2003
Posts: 135
Location: Lexington
Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2003 11:33 am
Post subject: Pro’s and Con’s of MX 2004
Do you have any pros and cons of using MX 2004?
Let us know about it.
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John Paul
Editor: FlashNewz
www.flashnewz.com
dugfresh33
Member
Joined: 31 Jul 2003
Posts: 15
Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico
Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2003 5:41 pm
Post subject: MX 2004
Yes…I can’t afford the upgrade! Yikes! That’s kind of a steep price, don’t you think? I just finished upgrading to MX, only to be informed that the clunky Freehand 10 is now integrated into MX – in the form of MX Plus! Now there’s MX 2004 and MX 2004 with Flash Pro! I understand the whole concept of ROI and “what’s $400 when you’ll turn around and crank out sites for $2000,” but I also understand that, in addition to being a freelancer now (from about 7:30pm to 10:30pm – hey, I got a family now!), all of the other software I use has its own set of upgrades…
I always like to have a glass of WHINE during the day, so there it was. Sorry, but I was just a little shocked at the Level 2 price, that’s all.
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doug sanchez
creative director/lead designer
aurora design
flipside images
americana publishing Back to top animalstudios
WebPro Newbie
Joined: 17 Sep 2003
Posts: 4
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2003 4:11 am
Post subject: Flash MX 2004
Hi,
Well, I had expected Macromedia to come up with several improvements over the previous versions of Flash and my reactions to their latest edition are mixed. Let’s look at some of the pros first:
1. Fantastic interface, which is very flexible and quite easy to use if you are familiar with Flash MX.
2. Support for various video formats.
3. Integration possible with non-Flash stuff like Web Services, Java, etc.
4. Quite a few nice components added (but… refer to cons below)
5.ActionScript 2 improves upon the abilities of ActionScript 1 (but… refer to cons below)
6. If you are a programmer and you are thinking of how to use more Flash in your applications, then Flash MX 2004 Professional should be a blessing for you.
And now the cons:
1. Flash MX 2004 is a resources hogger of the highest order. You need a really hi-tech box to run it along with other applications. This would probably be one of the biggest disappointments. Performance of the tool has been greatly reduced.
2. While AS 2 may be able to do things AS 1 couldn’t, the flip side of the story is that due to changes in the syntax of AS2, that is, all lower case, it does not allow you to use AS1 code in Flash MX 2004.
3. Also, the NORMAL option in the AS editor has been removed, which will cause some trouble to those who are not familiar with scripting syntax.
4. Documentation is as PATHETIC as it could possibly be. There is negligible help for the components. The usage guidelines are useless if you are new to Flash. This is one area where Macromedia really needs to pull up its socks.
5. Virtually unchanged built-in libraries. The same set of buttons and other stuff. As useless as ever I guess!
In a nutshell, this is one upgrade I wouldn’t recommend if you are not into programming. For the usual designer, you would find it more worthwhile to stick to Flash MX and not Flash MX 2004.
Regards,
Ani. Back to top timphughes
Member
Joined: 16 Sep 2003
Posts: 12
Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2003 12:17 pm
Post subject:
I downloaded the trial version of flash mx 2004 Pro and was very impressed… I’m not so much a designer however and i will agree with ani, that this is an upgrade for developers. the new version has finally integrated more of the developer side of flash… That’s pretty much all it did though. If you are designing small sites… this upgade means very little, but if you are a developer, This is very good upgrade. I’ve been developing web applications for several years and once flash mx came out i started using it. it was nice, but it lacked quite a bit in the programming aspect. mx 2004 has made up for that i think.
for developers the only real benefit i have seen is that you can anti-alias fonts. This has been a thorn in most designers side since flash began.
The only problem is that the trial has already died… I think it only worked for like two days, I will be upgrading as soon as i can figure out a way to make it sound like i can’t live without it, to the upper management. Back to top zbatia
Member
Joined: 31 Jul 2003
Posts: 22
Location: Baltimore, MD
Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2003 1:45 pm
Post subject:
All upgrades are always welcome. However, too often upgrades make our lives more difficult. Our students get frustrated, the learning curve is much longer, the employers have difficulties to choose the right version because the lock of qualified developers…, more.
We have to re-develop the course content, labs, spend another $4K-6K per upgrade (the software upgrade is overpriced), wait for 2 months after to get the permission on a course upgrade from Higer Education Commission… Just imagine.
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The Cyber Teacher
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Having created the outlines for FlashNewz and FLADownloads, John has become a strong voice in the Flash Community. His reviews and tutorials give great insight and knowledge to readers around the world. He has a keen eye for what’s hot and what’s not in the Flash world. He has also developed and continues to run his own flash portal as a side project to keep his mind on the Flash community
Being a key designer for advertising creative, he’s got style when it comes to grabbing readers attention. With a proven track record, there isn’t much this guy can’t handle.
