Will you consider adding compatibility please??
Love the dark interface - been waiting a long time for that actually. Never knew why it didn't happen when Photoshop got it. But very dissapointed that I cannot open FLAs with AS2 in them, perform an update, and simply export them back out.
Yea yea... I heard it - Adobe doesn't "support" AS2 anymore. But that doesn't mean that new products we are paying for should have zero "compatibility" with our previous work. Opening , editing, and closing an AS2 -based FLA file does not mean I am refusing to get on board with AS3 after a million years. It is a simple necessity. I prefer AS3 for coding to AS2. I get the focus on the latest scripting rev. I get that it uses the better VM that runs 10 times more efficiently blah blah - so better for mobile etc. (probably the motivator here). So, no longer "supporting" AS2 programmers - as in being there to help/encourage people who still write it etc - is understandable at this stage. BUT to disable the ability to open a legacy file with AS2 in it - perform a simple edit and reexport it - is a horrific decision. Here is just one real world example of why.
The group I work with has developed HUNDREDS of learning modules and tools over the last DECADE using Flash. Some of tools are complex interactive games etc - that require updates from time to time based on requests. Am I supposed to entirely recode them so I can use my new software? This as opposed to spending 15 minutes on an update and export? Each lesson module uses a custom designed AS2-coded shell environment that loads - on average - 30-50 external swf files - all coded in AS2 themselves because the shells cannot load AS3. To go backwards and reprogram the shells themselves (very complex), as well as all the interactivity and videos and buttons and audio and testing that is inside these shell-loaded swf files (numbering in the thousands likely) would be an enormous and absurdly wasteful undertaking.They regularly need small or minute updates to their content - mere text changes here and there even - previously taking only minutes to perform. Now, if I export the swf, it will be AS3 and won't work. These updates are done regularly. Are we supposed to now say "hey - client - guess what - your stuff needs to be completely retooled for no good reason - even tho it runs beautifully as-is" ?? I can't even open an FLA and export it out if it has AS2 in it??? I don't expect Adobe "support" in regards to new AS2 projects, but backwards "compatibility" is another thing. Some people have a ton of work still being used on a regular basis that was written prior to AS3 being the standard - and the clients don't care about AS3 - they care about their budgets.
I will have to keep Flash CS6 installed apparently, even tho I pay 50 bucks a month for the CC. Flash - for many of us interactive devs, who build stuff for government contracts and/or big companies that are still running IE7 and IE8 across their corporations (with no intention of updating anytime in the near future - believe it) have no option other than Flash, so we still spend an incredible amount of time in this tool. I can't just kick out static down-staged images for these guys with my magical Edge Animate software. Great product too - which I use for other things - but not the silver bullet of online animation/interactivity by any stretch of the imagination.