[Resolved] An outcry to Macromedia and the development community

[Shane_Verstegen]

Let’s establish what we need here to clean this up:

The development community:
The flash development community undoubtedly needs to continue to report their T/E (test and evaluation) to MM via bug reports, and the FK, WH, and MM forums. These are currently the main stages of the community- I propose we use them to our advantage- as a way to deliver insightful, constructive information on the current issues at hand.


Mike Chambers (Macromedia):
I'm sure that the lot of us identify with you and indeed sympathize with the perpetual migraine you have most likely have been living for the last month. I'll again go out on a limb and say that most of us greatly appreciate your efforts thus far. We are both highly-impressed and pleased with the features integrated into the MX release. The fact remains though that the MX player (v.21, .23, .25, .29) was/is quite simply not ready for deployment as a replacement for the flash5 player. The painfully apparent truth here is that effective MX implementation is still impossible. I ask you to please keep from being discouraged, and take these criticisms as constructive information. We need from you a feasible solution to the problems that we now face with the .29 MX player. An all-encompassing fix, a cumulative patch, a concrete documentation, a one click solution simplified to the end-user level is in order. I’m sure you’ve identified that the installation process must be simplified before any of us will be able to conduct business at the level that we’ve pledged to our clients. Unflinching, I’ll speak for the community which chooses to develop web content with Macromedia software, and state that as developers we value your products, we prefer them, however we cannot in good faith use your software as a means to develop that which we intend to distribute to our clients. This will remain true, and the future of MX and the technologies that it may bring will remain unrecognized until a resolution to the aforementioned issues has been delivered.

I've started threads at the FK, WH, and MM forums under the subject "An outcry to Macromedia and the development community".

I'd like to see these threads used for deposition of suggestions, and constructive comments, ultimately to aide the goal common to both MM and the proactive development community: the effective implementation of the MX client.

[Shane_Verstegen]

Exactly what issues remain after this latest build of the player? I thought this latest build took care of the remaining show-stopper bugs... ???

I haven't loaded it, but check out http://www.were-here.com/forums/show...hreadid=135712

The above listed thread shows the degree of difficulty computer-minded Developers are having with installation of the new plugin. Users who have sucessfully gotten the player to install correctly have been few and far between in their reports. A greater number report success after several unsucceessfull attempts. Some are so desparate that they post requests to peers for the updated player for direct download. Regardless of whether the flash plugin can be installed on all systems, (which remains to be established), it is certain that the player is not easily updated as it stands, and the process is surely more than we can expect of the end users we target.

As it stands- the player has been re-engineered to accomodate the following issues:

1. Interrupting of loading media into player does not halt, rather queues and loads entire file.
2. LoadSound continues to download even though the object is stopped, unloaded, or deleted
3. When an event sound is playing and the sound object gets deleted, the sound still plays even though there are no more references to the sound object.
4. Large Media (video, MP3) causes Flash Player to lock up.

-Mike Chambers

The currently most pressing issue is the fact that the player can not be easily updated by the bulk of end users.


To isolate the problem- the posting of unsuccessful installs complete with OS/Browser Versions and steps taken- can be posted here or at http://www.were-here.com/forums/show...hreadid=135712

[MikeChambers]

couple of points.

1. this is not a new issue. see:

http://radio.weblogs.com/0106797/2002/05/03.html#a44

2. the thread you reference on were-here.com is only about 1 person who is having problems.

3. please do not post the same thread to multiple places. It makes it very difficult for me to monitor all of them. Plus, if i have information, i have to post it to each thread, meaning I have less time to look at other threads.

thanks for your help...

mike chambers

mesh@macromedia.com

[Shane_Verstegen]

Mike Chambers-

Without seeming unappreciative of your reply, I'd like to lay out why I don't find that it helps the situation.

I think you'll aggree with me in this since you've identified the problem as well. Whether this is an old or new issue is irrelevant. It is more important now, than ever that the player update goes smoothly, as the faulty players have already been distributed, and this upgrade is not identifiable to users who've not experienced and identified the streaming bug.

[list=1][*]The link you've posted seems to be down currently, is there perhaps a mirror on Macromedia's site?

In the meantime,
What might I hope to find there?
[*]The thread you refer to is indeed regarding one person, but is an excellent example of the problems many are currently facing.
(If you require further examples in order to give credence to this problem, the "New Streaming Issues" thread sites several)[/list=1]
Once again, I appreciate your reply, if it will make it easier on you, and utimately allow you to focus your efforts on the issue at hand, then I will personally restrict my postings to this forum. I have relayed your request to the posters of the other threads regarding this issue as well.


[Edited by shane_verstegen on 05-03-2002 at 04:06 PM]