name: Omar Gonzalez
age: 32
employer: almerblank.com
location: Venice Beach, California

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 (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 (github.com/s9tpepper/MongoAS3). I can’t wait to be able to contribute to the Flex SDK via the Spoon project (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: Tony Lukasavage
age: 30
employer: Appcelerator (as of 8/22/2011)
location: Pittsburgh PA

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

Only about a year and a half ago, and I’m far from an expert. Most of my background before that was in back-end and middleware development in languages like C/C++, Perl, PHP, and shell scripting. One day I said to myself, “I need a challenge, what’s the opposite of your current programming skillset?” I came up with 3D graphics in Flash.

I started learning AS3 with Flex/Flash Builder by experimenting with Away3D. After a lot of demos and interesting blog posts, I shifted my gaze to what would ultimately hold the most appeal to me about Flex and AS3 dev: cross-platform development. I have since been spending most of my AS3 development time working on cross-platform mobile and desktop applications, leveraging Flex and Adobe Air.

are you practicing TDD? why/why not?

Not yet. Until recently I was employed by a large company without a single developer skilled in using test driven development. The structure of the team and the environment were just not well suited to introduce the methodology. I do plan to start incorporating it into personal projects as it appeals to my sometimes meticulous attention to detail.

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

The first mobile app I ever created and deployed to a market, Android in this case, was built using the mobile Flex “Hero” SDK. It is a simple fitness calculator called “Repper”. The Flex-based version has since been replaced by a native Android version on the market, but the original source code for the Flex-based version can be found on Github:

https://github.com/tonylukasavage/Repper-Flex

This project, while basic, was a great way to learn the pros and cons of choosing a cross platform mobile development framework over native development. Adobe’s framework allows a truly uniform experience across platforms, but comes at the expense of features and extensibility.

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

I’ll stick to AS3 dev since a comprehensive list would be too long. I’ve used FlashDevelop and FDT, but I always seem to find my way back to Flash Builder. Unlike most, I’ve never really had a problem with Eclipse based IDEs. Yeah, sometimes they’re heavier than they need to be, but I do like the familiarity. I’ve always made an effort to use the tooling created by the people controlling the underlying APIs and SDKs.

As for plugins, I don’t roll without version control. For SVN I typically use Subclipse. For git, I prefer sticking to the CLI.

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

Not much really. I’m a coder through and through so most of the tools in the Adobe CS make my head spin. I guess you could count TweetDeck since once I do dig into an AS3 based project, I tend to pummel all my Flash tweeps with questions.

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

Wow, too many to mention. Your best bet is to check out my following list on Twitter and search for “Adobe”, “Flash”, “AS3″, or “Flex.” Lots of pretty brilliant people in that collection.

If I was going to single a few out for being extremely helpful, knowledgeable, and interesting people, I’d say make sure you check out @jessefreeman, @jesterxl, @AntonioHolguin, @jonbcampos, @polygeek, @s9tpepper, @killerspaz, @nodename, @swfgeek, and of course, @seantheflexguy! @remotesynth also writes a periodic Adobe related news blog post that is great for tracking down the relevant players. Sorry to anyone I forgot to mention, there’s just too many of you to keep track of!

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

I like to stay busy so I’m usually working on something. I have a MMA fighter search app on the Android market called “Knuckle Head.” My crowning achievement with that app is not functionality or style, but the fact that I wrote an app targeting the 18-35 year old male demographic and still managed to maintain a 4.9 rating on the market. All mobile developers know just how fickle those users can be with their ratings and its a testament to the amount of effort I put into the usability of the app.

In addition I’m currently using Appcelerator to port the Android version to iPhone. It’s going very quickly so far and I have been pleased with the progress and results. I’m hoping to have that done and submitted to the Apple App Store within the next week or two, life permitting.

One other project, the one that your Adobe-centric audience may actually care about it, is “Gonzo.” Gonzo is an open source, lightweight markdown editor I’ve written using Flex 4.5 and AS3 for Adobe Air for desktop. Its a stripped-to-the-bone application that serves one purpose: helping you deliver well formed and easy to proofread web content.

I could ramble on and on about how great it is, or you can just check out my blog post:

savagelook.com/blog/actionscript3/gonzo-an-open-source-markdown-editor

or check out the full source on Github:

https://github.com/tonylukasavage/Gonzo

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

I think it’s a good thing for every developer, regardless of what side of the fence you are on. Competition breeds the best results, right? HTML5 and JS are slowly eating away at what used to be Flash-only functionality, which in turn is forcing Adobe to deliver very cool things like Molehill in FP11 and cross platform mobile development. Its an exciting time.

I’ve never been an avid web or Javascript developer, but I’ve always been intrigued how it can deliver relatively uniform cross browser, and thus cross-platform, experience. What really excites me now is not so much the browser based Javascript, as HTML5 is not really delivering anything that didn’t already exist via Flash, but how Javascript is making waves outside the browser.

Popular projects like Appcelerator and Node.js that use Javascript as the language of choice outside of a browser are making JS a much more appealing skill to have. I know, I know, a lot of the AS3 developers out there are saying, “Oh great, it’s like being back in the AS1 days!” But here’s the thing. We know Javascript isn’t going away anytime soon, so why not leverage your past experience with the similarly designed ECMAScript language? Why complain when you can stand out from the pack of fanboys? I think a lot of the Adobe based developers out there are selling themselves short by not taking the massive rise in Javascript’s popularity seriously.

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

I will be contributing heavily to the many available Appcelerator projects on Gitub (https://github.com/appcelerator) in the near future. In addition, I’m actively developing Gonzo (https://github.com/tonylukasavage/Gonzo), I’ve contributed BlackBerry support to the PhoneGap tool chain project Cordova (https://github.com/brianleroux/Cordova), and I made a small contribution to the suds.js library (https://github.com/kwhinnery/Suds) for handling SOAP in JS. I’m also
planning to help clean up Charles Strahan’s AS3 port of Showdown (https://github.com/cstrahan/Showdown.as), a markdown to HTML library I use in Gonzo.

I’m a BIG advocate of open source software and ever since joining Github, I have a strong tendency to contribute back to projects that I actively use.

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

Gonzo is my only current Flex project, and it is using 4.5.

what other programming languages do you know/use?

Yikes, here we go. I use or have used Flex/AS3 for mobile and desktop development. I use Java for native Android development. I use Objective-C for native iOS development. I use Javascript for Appcelerator, some Node.js experimenting, and minimal web-based development. I’ve dabbled a bit in HTML5/CSS3/JS stack for PhoneGap development. I spent the last 1.5 years of my 9 to 5 writing enterprise middleware in C# and .NET. I do lots of Linux server scripting with the shell and Perl. I’m a regex junkie. In a past life I wrote network security software in C/C++.

As you can see, I’m a fan of diverse skill sets. The larger the skill set, the better understanding you have of the relative strengths and weaknesses of each.

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

Chase around my 2 year old daughter, eat steak, drink Jack Daniel’s, and watch movies, usually in that order. In the past I was also a fitness nut and a mixed martial arts fighter. Hoping to get back to those days soon if my current physical therapy works out.

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

If anyone wants to see my work, be sure to check out savagelook.com/blog and https://github.com/tonylukasavage. More often than not you can find me on Twitter @tonylukasavage. I also occasionally write articles for buildmobile.com/author/tlukasavage/ and you’ll soon be seeing LOTS of my content at appcelerator.com.

any questions i should add to this interview?

You might want to ask “why” people decided to get involved with AS3/Flex/Flash. Might be fun to have a random question that has nothing to do with anything, like “What’s your favorite animal?”

ok, so what’s your favorite animal?

probably cows, very tasty.

name: Matthew Wallace
age: N/A
employer: N/A
location: N/A

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.?

www.theflashblog.com

twitter.com/matthewswallace/companies

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.

mattwallace.me

twitter.com/matthewswallace

gplus.to/mattwallace

name: Jesse Warden
age: 32
employer: self-employed (Warden D&D / Web App Solution)
location: Atlanta, Georgia, USA

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

Started Flash and ActionScript in 2001. Doing our projects in Director didn’t work for a variety of reasons, namely Designers couldn’t use Director with me, their designs were limited, and animations looked better in Flash using it’s sub-pixel rendering. Also attachMovie had a HUGE development speed up compared to swapping with pre-existing items in Director’s score; that was the nail in the coffin for transitioning.

Started Flex in 2004 at 1.0; at first I didn’t like it, but as my client base changed, I fell in love with the width and heights of “100%”.

I did like 1 personal AIR project that had some pretty decent uptake, but that’s about it. Most of it has been personal projects. Most AIR I do now is mobile only.

are you practicing TDD? why/why not?

No. I’m usually a consultant. As such, I’m not often hired to build things, I’m hired to fix huge pre-existing projects, or ensure new projects get built amongst the most difficult, setup-to-fail situations possible. I’m usually put on teams who live in daily fire drills where builds fail, no one knows why, management is beyond frustrated, but it’s pitched as “a cool Flex app we’d love to have you help build”. My first order of business is clearly identify why the client is in the situation they are, and make professional recommendations, and then help implement those recommendations. Often you’re working with teams that don’t practice TDD, or who don’t know how to unit test. Other times, you have larger problems then simply writing code.

For those clients who have smaller projects on shorter deadlines such as design agencies, no. The technical debt is never paid, and the shelf life is measured in hours or days.

For startups or smaller companies building products, I only do unit tests for problem/in flux areas. These include 3rd party libraries built by another firm that consistently fails to test themselves, or complicated application that forms a core value of the app, but keeps changing because the client/stakeholders are still feeling out the functionality.

The common thing that happens for Enterprise clients is I’ll usually increase test coverage on problem areas to help reduce/remove the fire drills, specifically around service layers (code that talks to a back-end). These are unit tests written around existing code, not new code where you write the test first. Again, most of these are more for ensuring integration testing goes smoothly, not really testing the code in isolate to prevent technical debt.

I’d love to do more TDD, but most of my clients have bigger problems.

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

Cairngorm, PureMVC, ARP, and if you do Flex consulting with large clients, you have to know about Robotlegs/Swiz/Parsely.

Robotlegs is my favorite, although I’m still learning about v2.

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

Yeah, although, no paying clients yet. Most want native. It’s really fun! Single code base for 60% of your core code, and you just make your GUI flexible. That, and the apps are smaller in scope with shorter project times; nice change of pace.

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

Tie between Flash Builder 4.5 and IntelliJ 10.5. Flash Builder owns project setup and MXML/Flex. IntelliJ owns ActionScript dev. No plugins, although, I’m told I’m a moron for not using SourceMate… in fact, I think I’m the only guy on the planet who doesn’t use it every day.

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

BeyondCompare, Github, Tower… normal stuff. I’ll use TextMate for quick previews edits.

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

I don’t follow blogs; I just wait for someone to bubble up a good blog post from Twitter or Google+. Or, I’ll stumble upon one whilst doing a Google search on trying to solve some problem.

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

You don’t attend conferences, you speak at conferences. That said, I’ve tried not to this year so I can save money to fix my house up and move. That said, if you’re in the Flash/Flex world, it’s kind of weird to say “No” to Shawn Pucknell, so… spoke at FITC Toronto this year about mobile design, and speaking about refactoring + doing a workshop on Flash & Lua/Corona mobile gaming at RIA Unleashed this fall in Boston.

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

…eventually; consulting + running my business + my family takes all my time. 2 I’m working on now are:

- 1942 PlaneShooter mobile game built with Corona I want to release as a series of tutorials + source code
- a mobile Flash AIR app that works with Cocoonp2p to do some neat peer to peer stuff with devices controlling other computers & devices

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

Nope. I try to give constructive criticism to Robotlegs team, Flex SDK & Spoon team where applicable.

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

The pro’s: more buzz around tech, more people capable of building better experiences on the web, more money funneled into our industry.

The con’s: a lot of insecurity surfaced amongst Flash/Flex devs, some of which is unfounded, a lot of FUD & unnecessary mud-slinging thrown around, and a TON of beating dead horeses that doesn’t seem to have much mindshare affects. It’s also surfaced a bigger problem with a continuing reduction of Flash Player’s viability ecspecially with mobile taking off without Flash’s help. This is sad, and our rage should be directed at Adobe. That said, the damage has been done, and we’re losing a few great devs through attrition, lack of passion in just Flash/Flex, or just going with the flow and enjoying trying something mobile centric.

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

4.5 and 4.5.1

what other programming languages do you know/use?

I’ve dabbled in a ton, but I’d say Python and Lua are my 2 passions right now beyond ActionScript.

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

Spend time with family, gaming, movies, and running my business related tasks that aren’t coding related (phone calls, emails, managing other sub-contractors/co-workers, hustling, etc).

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

My Company: webappsolution.com
My Blog: jessewarden.com
Robotlegs: robotlegs.org
Corona: www.anscamobile.com/corona/

any questions i should add to this interview?

I think doing future projections is hard. That said, getting people’s input on 1. how mobile affects their work and 2. what Adobe needs to do to innovate.