A case for the "timeliners"

Over the past couple of years, coding in Flash has grown with leaps and bounds, though this is great, it has created a certain gap between coders, and some of the more "hands-on" creatives, called "timeliners", those who still embed their objects manually on a stage, and use crazy things like tweens and keyframes. These days, if you want to do anything serious on the Flash "Platform" you are not going to be able to get very far without getting text-based and probably AS3'd for at least a little while. That is already a turn-off for many of the creatively-orientated people I know.

This doesn't change the fact that some of the most talented Flash creatives I know are timeliners and the way they think, create, innovate is visual/timeline based. Timeliners are a vital and necessary part of the Flash eco-system - it allows people to output their creativity in a way that is much easier for them, where they can physically see what is moving, in stead of having to imagine it and then start coding. Also in terms of fast prototyping, hands-on technologies are great in terms of getting people from different skill-sets involved. I am not going to force them to learn AS3 to express themselves, out of knowing how they normally create and respect for the distinct way of expressing themselves. If coders apparently will "quit their jobs if they have to convert timeline to code" it means that coders are taking some kind of technical highground here, and at the end of the day there's really no right or wrong - though this most Flash threads in forums clearly favours "smarter" coders.

A possible solution is in abstraction layers between coders and timeliners/designers (making it easier/automatic for timeliners to generate basic AS3 code). Some are already out there with their aim to bring the fun back into visual development with Flash - you can't force people to think a certain way to use Flash, that is one of it's great strengths - that creatives and programmers can work together - if you don't see the value in that, then you are missing one of the most interesting things about Flash.

There is no doubt that in a perfect Flash world we would all speak perfect AS4, but this is not the world we live in and Flash coders seem to be woefully out of touch with the diversity and richness of creative intelligence out there - expecting people to adapt to them, because they went through the pain of having to think like a code compiler - this is a completely natural tendency once there is a high barrier to entry to a certain grouping of people.

This barrier to entry can be quite intimidating to people wanting to approach the platform the first time - I think in terms of AS3, there will be some more simple IDE's out there to fill the gap if Adobe and Flash community continues to widen it. Awesome FlashDevelop and FDT have already lured many coders away from the Adobe Flash IDE, further increasing the gap - if Adobe is serious about bringing coders and timeliners together, they should think about making the their own IDE more attractive to coders too (or are the all supposed to use Flash Builder?). Projects like the "Hype" framework are some of the first examples of this happening from inside the community from the creative side. Adobe should support all these technologies and try to integrate into the standard developer experience when working with Flash the first time.