Commenters here sometimes slag the use of Flash panels inside Creative Suite apps, saying that Flash leads to poor UI. These comments confuse the technology with how it’s been used. Unfortunately it’s true that some SWF panels (example) have been poorly done.
Endeavoring to drive more consistency, the Adobe Experience Design & developer support teams have created a set of “Scope Skins” for use in CS4 panels. According to the download page,
Scope Skins (for Flex Builder 3) were created to skin Adobe Flex apps to provide the same UI as a native Creative Suite panel. This was done with little impact to the functionality of the standard Flex 3 components.
If you’re creating panels for use in Photoshop and/or other Suite apps, please take a look at these skins and let us know what you think.
It had been months since I had been to the Adobe UI Gripes site and there you go, sending me there so I can blow an hour giggling at the stuff!
Thanks for the link on the UI skin, I may use this on an upcoming project, though I wish it handled combobox and text fields. It would be a lot more useful then.
I’m sure that some people will wrongly equate Flash UI with poor UI. Please don’t confuse those people with those of us that merely equate Flash UI with never-going-to-be-native UI, which actually is an issue.
For example, I couldn’t use Mac OS X services from a text field’s right click menu in a Flash panel in the upcoming CS5, even though it’d come free with all Cocoa text fields. This is not about framework religion or Adobe being barred from using its own technology, it’s about actual downsides, and I wish you’d be as eager to at least acknowledge that side of it as well.
[Everything has downsides, and there are plenty in Flash. I don’t know why I’d be “eager” to talk up shortcomings in Adobe products, but I try pretty hard not to oversell anything. (Cf. my posts about the benefits 64-bitness does, and does not, provide.)
Flash is no magic bullet, but it offers a way to build lightweight, consistent, cross-product, cross-platform, network-enabled, vector-based UIs, all via popular authoring tools. –J.]
“created to skin Adobe Flex apps to provide the same UI as a native Creative Suite panel”
Sorry its not the same if its drawn and programmed using a completely different method. Its this sort of “looks kinda the same so must work the same” mentality that you see with bad programmers.
I mean fair enough flash panels have advantages but don’t even start to pretend they will ever equate to a half decent UI
i just noticed that cs4 till strips the gps metadata.. what is that for a fucking bug? i spend hours on these things and adobe is ruining my work.. i think we should sue them.
when i save a tiff or jpg from photoshop then acdsee or lightroom is not showing the embedded GPS data anymore. 🙁
this is an issue since 2006 as i read. but i started with GPS just 3 weeks ago.
load a TIF file with GPS data… resize the file and save it as JPG or TIF file and all you GPS data is lost.
that needs an immediate hotfix!!!
it happens sporadic.
i just notice that when i save a file after resizing it then sometimes the GPS data is lost and sometimes not.
i check the exif data with kusos exif view and acdsee.
“I don’t know why I’d be “eager” to talk up shortcomings in Adobe products, but I try pretty hard not to oversell anything.” Fair enough, I guess, although the only reason I keep bringing this up in the comments is because you keep sniping at the more hardline crowd, which after a while makes it seem like that’s the only argument being put forth. That’s the “eagerness” I was referring to.
I fully appreciate that neither you nor Adobe owes anyone anything, but I would love to see a post (in your copious free time, of course) where the pros and cons are thoroughly addressed, including what Adobe finds so compelling in their custom controls, how the native controls are inflexible, and what Adobe is planning on doing to bridge the gaps in its offering. Also, a pony.
Just to be clear: you’re near the top of my reads in NNW when sorted by attention. I love the link posts and most of the rest of the content. It’s just this that yanks my chain.
Having just stumbled upon http://adobegripes.tumblr.com/page/13 I have to say I’m worried. What’s up with Q&A?
Just forget about non-standard UI and DRM, they are not the features I’m looking for in software. They are never on the list of ‘things I need in a creative suite’.
And yet, the seem to be costing Adobe time and resources that could have been devoted to something like, say, improving the extremely crappy updater.
Lars, we have subsequently added GPS metadata when saving out TIFs. The GPS data should already be present when saving out JPEGs, unless you’re using Save for Web, where we intentionally strip most of the metadata to reduce file size.
Skins are might be nice but DRM is intolerable.
SLOWED load time is caused by the “licensing service” software that is wholly unnecessary to operation It probably reduces “casual piracy” but has in no way stopped the piracy that concerns adobe. It merely serves to annoy paying customers… sometimes into finding other software. DRMfascism is ALWAYS counter productive. Hopefully those who believe it to be a good plan despite ever growing evidence to the contrary will soon abandon torturing clients.
A savvy user can prevent the DRM bloatware from being installed.
CS4 applications load MUCH FASTER when installed without DRM bloatware.
I would offer instructions but adobe would change tactics and I am happy being able to improve my own load time.
Sure it violates the license, but I paid for it, and MY time is valuable, I do not have patience to spare, and I am the sole arbiter of what is allowed to run on MY hardware.