[Hidden-tech] Future of Dreamweaver and Flash; Move on Microsoft?

[B. Kimo Lee]

Hi Trace,

I agree with your general assessment of the strengths of Adobe being in  
image editing and Macromedia being in Web related software. That's my  
observation too. The author of one of the articles I provided a link to  
in my initial post considered Photoshop and Fireworks as having the  
"same purpose", which is a big stretch for me. I use Fireworks for  
designing Web page graphics and exporting optimized art, but would  
never consider it for image editing -- certainly not for the print  
space. And I wouldn't use it for designing a logo either, something  
that I prefer Illustrator for. Fireworks fills a very specific need for  
me. It is true that I could use Adobe's tools, but I really like  
Firework's feature set much better for Web tasks, so having Fireworks  
"fade away" would be bad for me.

I'd like to combine Illustrator with Fireworks, that might be  
interesting, as I frequently find myself having to save Illustrator  
elements down to v.8 to open in Fireworks to maintain their outline  
paths rather than as boxed-bitmaps. The other option is to provide an  
"import Illustrator files with paths" feature in Fireworks.

There's a lot of issues that this merger brings up concerning the  
future of the tools, and the strategic positioning of Adobe v.  
Microsoft in the enterprise doc market, and as a platform provider in  
growing smart-phone market.

What  you said about "PDF marries Flash" is very intriguing! I'll warn  
you though that I'm one of those people who don't want to wait for some  
silly buttons to dance around, keeping me from going where I need to  
go--a poor design decision, imho. While I like the convenience of the  
PDF format, I get annoyed when I have to download a file to find  
information. I want the pertinent info at my fingertips instantly. If a  
merger of Flash and PDF will get me to the info faster, great! Maybe  
what I'm talking about is my sense of a misappropriation of technology  
v. content, so the key term for me is your use of the word  
"multimedia". Let content-types drive the delivery format. Textual info  
in HTML/PHP/JSP/ASP, etc., rich media as separate elements delivered in  
the appropriate format. Bringing it back to the Flash/PDF concept, one  
of the possible pluses I can see is an ability to print Flash elements  
out with high resolution, of course that's totally off the cuff.

It's going to be an interesting year.

Best,

Kimo Lee

On Monday, May 2, 2005, at 08:20 PM, Trace Meek wrote:

>
> This is a big topic of discussion where I work. Most designers I know  
> who have used both Adobe and Macromedia software tend to agree that  
> Adobe is stronger in the area of image editing and print software  
> (after all, they wrote PostScript), and that Macromedia wins in the  
> Web area.
>
> There are of course nice and not so nice features in all of the  
> programs. Personally I use Dreamweaver, and I can't stand how GoLive  
> butchers code (last time I checked, there was no such thing as a  
> <csobj> tag in the HTML spec) and creates unwanted folders in the  
> process of defining a site. But I will acknowledge that GoLive's CSS  
> code-completion feature seems a little more intuitive than DW's.
>
> I trust that Adobe is smart enough to merge the best of all its  
> creative software into some kind of super-suite.
>
> Interestingly, though, I think that it's not only developers and  
> creative professionals that Adobe is targeting with its acquisition;  
> it's the end consumer of the created goods. There is talk about how  
> Adobe is poised to develop the next web-delivered multimedia platform  
> (think PDF marries Flash). Once this is established as a  
> widely-accepted mode of content delivery (made easier by the free  
> distribution of a Reader/Player), then the professionals will of  
> course have to buy the authoring software.
>
> My bet is that Freehand, Fireworks, and GoLive (but not Microsoft)  
> will fade away. With any luck I'll be relying more heavily on good old  
> BBEdit by then! (Gotta have my Photoshop and InDesign, though.)
>
> Trace Meek
> www.tracemeek.com
>
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