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Thread: Safe to use MX yet?

  1. #1
    Freelance or Bust thodya's Avatar
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    Safe to use MX yet?

    What's your take on using Flash 6 elements in corporate web work? I've been holding back, exporting everything as Flash 5 until now, but I want to start using the benefits that MX has to offer. Now that version 7 is out, can I assume the market penetration is high enough to make MX legit?
    Last edited by thodya; 09-14-2003 at 11:23 AM.

  2. #2
    An Inconvenient Serving Size hurricaneone's Avatar
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    My new take on this is to export to 6, but use predominantly 5 scripting (timers using onClipEvent, not the actionscript version, text scrollers, utility stuff like this), so the user will only lose the eye candy and not the complete site, if they've refused to update their player from the intro warning etc.

    Does that help?

    Corporate stuff is such a guessing game. On one hand, you have a big company which has a huge turnover, so you'd think that they have all the latest, etc, but little do you know, the CFO is a tight git who won't replace the 14" monitors and 486DX machines until they literally explode.

    Bleh.
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  3. #3
    Freelance or Bust thodya's Avatar
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    Originally posted by hurricaneone
    the CFO is a tight git who won't replace the 14" monitors and 486DX machines until they literally explode.
    That's my main concern. I constantly run into top executives in big companies running NS 4.x on Win98...It still blows me away.

    I guess a side question would be, has the general public's willingness to install plugins increased over the last few years? Being on top of the latest plugins and patches used to be the realm of the super-geeks, but I have a feeling it's slowly becoming more mainstream.

  4. #4
    An Inconvenient Serving Size hurricaneone's Avatar
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    Originally posted by thodya
    That's my main concern. I constantly run into top executives in big companies running NS 4.x on Win98...It still blows me away.

    I guess a side question would be, has the general public's willingness to install plugins increased over the last few years? Being on top of the latest plugins and patches used to be the realm of the super-geeks, but I have a feeling it's slowly becoming more mainstream.
    Mmm, I know quite a few guys who work at larger corps, and, after talking to them about the net etc, you'd think that they had a pretty good handle on things, can change the settings (at least) on their own machines etc.

    Distressingly, it ain't so. Even the individuals that can talk up the net like a pro somethimes have trouble changing the wallpaper on their own desktops. It's jaw-droppingly apparent to me that what you hear does not always correlate to what can be done, so there's many a surfer who lives in oblivion as to what is a Flash player, the fact that they're regularly updated, and worst of all, they've been intimidated into thinking that installing anything off the net is going to also install the latest, greatest virus.

    But that's the down side - I would say that generally, there are now more people than there used to be willing to 'risk' installing the latest player, if only because sheep-like, they follow your directions telling 'em that it's the right thing to do. Hell, there's still people who are positive that their internet security has been compromised - in-depth information for a crappy popup ad banner, eh?.

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    poet and narcisist argonauta's Avatar
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    it's frustrating. I think every large company should hire a 6 year old to browse the net for them. Little kids KNOW how to handle new technologies
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    An Inconvenient Serving Size hurricaneone's Avatar
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    Originally posted by argonauta
    it's frustrating. I think every large company should hire a 6 year old to browse the net for them. Little kids KNOW how to handle new technologies
    I think that this was actually considered, as it is true - your average six-year old can run rings around your average CEO when it comes to computers (table manners are another subject), but it was found that in most countries, those darned child labour laws prevented the practice.

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    Senior Member dlowe93's Avatar
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    Re: Safe to use MX yet?

    Originally posted by thodya
    What's your take on using Flash 6 elements in corporate web work? I've been holding back, exporting everything as Flash 5 until now, but I want to start using the benefits that MX has to offer. Now that version 7 is out, can I assume the market penetration is high enough to make MX legit?
    I've actually seen a lot of gain over the last 6 months. I still try to build to Flash 5 syntax, unless the client wants something that can't be done (or done easily) without using Flash 6.

    I think that by putting the newer technologies in front of clients where they can see it, they tend to be inclined to use it.

    I have one client who is very conservative, i was still coding stuff for them in Flash 4 syntax at the start of this year. Then another (more progressive) brand group within their company did some video embedded in Flash. The original group came back with "well, we want to do that kind of stuff, what will it take?"

    Now everything is to a Flash 6 spec for them. I'm using lots of video and xml-based dynamic content for a client who were afraid to even do Flash 5 content six months ago.

    d.
    dlowe93

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    question... how can you tell if your actionscrip code is compliant with older versions of flash?

  9. #9
    An Inconvenient Serving Size hurricaneone's Avatar
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    I've seen that question asked quite a few times in the Help forums, Lifeforce, and as far as I can tell (from there being no answers, and me doing a couple of google searches) there is no way to tell if your script is compliant to an older player version, other than to be aware of the individual elements and with which version they were introduced.

    Put it this way (again, as far as I'm aware), there is no converter that will backdate your code, like the way older syntax is updated upon opening a file in a later version of the software, but in reverse.
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  10. #10
    Freelance or Bust thodya's Avatar
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    Originally posted by hurricaneone
    I've seen that question asked quite a few times in the Help forums, Lifeforce, and as far as I can tell (from there being no answers, and me doing a couple of google searches) there is no way to tell if your script is compliant to an older player version, other than to be aware of the individual elements and with which version they were introduced.

    Put it this way (again, as far as I'm aware), there is no converter that will backdate your code, like the way older syntax is updated upon opening a file in a later version of the software, but in reverse.
    You will get a warning on export though if you have non-compliant code.

  11. #11
    go blues ! audas's Avatar
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    question... how can you tell if your actionscrip code is compliant with older versions of flash?
    I saw on flashblog, or flash something a player switcher, that aloows you to simply flick between all the releases for testing. windows only.
    peace.

  12. #12
    Senior Member dlowe93's Avatar
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    Originally posted by Lifeforce
    question... how can you tell if your actionscrip code is compliant with older versions of flash?
    In your publish settings, if you choose to publish in an earlier version of Flash, you will get errors in your output window telling you what code is not compliant.

    I wouldn't rely on it 100% though. Testing, testing and testing are your best bets.

    d,
    dlowe93

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