Well in all fairness thats not totally true, i gotta give it to Ben Forta he didnt have it easy with the questions thrown at him tonight. With some questions you could see that he really wanted to answer and demonstrate Flex and its abilities and direction, with others you could see he didnt want to answer them yet. Kind of like having a surprise gift for someone but waiting for the right moment so you can see their face. I dont know what to say really about Flex, but thats only because we were kind of asked to not mention/blog too much due to NDA's and the product still being in early beta etc. Mind you Ben did say he'll take the blame ;o)
One thing i can say about Flex is WOW!!!!! All though the demo you could see noods and hear little wow's of astonishment. The presentation was set around building a demo app, which showed the ease, and power that it can harness. I did ask how Flex stood in regards to Eolas, but not much could really be said, but i was pointed in the direction of the MM website regarding this matter. One answer which was given a few times in regards to components, Https calls, and some other bits were , "its Flash, so if that can do it then.................". I could, and would love to go on about what we saw but like i said there was a kind of verbal NDA in the air, which i dont really wanna cross. Well, not till someone else has crossed it ;o). Incase you dont (though i cant see a reason not to) keep an eye on Ben Forta's blog as some of this code showed up tonight.
Other questions asked though: Well I had to ask about Blackstone (CF's next development) though it wasnt said if this was another upgrade or new version. Personally though from the sound of it i would say, new version. Ben talked a bit about on-the fly docs i.e PDF's (as demo'd at Max), as well as now that the engine is running so its back to adding features, and seeing what we would like to see added. A question was then asked about Flash Paper aswell, but nothing was let slipped, though a tie-in with Flex, maybe????
Another question asked was about Homesite, and its future. If you have read this, then you know Ben thoughts. What he did mention is that there are NO plans on ending development, which is good. Aparently MM know that they need an editor for some of their other products like Action Script and Flex, so with that in mind they are deciding the best route now.
Well i think thats all. Im sure ive missed loads, no doubt there will be enough blog over the next day or two filling in alllll the bits i missed. Regretfully i couldn't hang around afterwards which would of been cool, but me and a mate had to get back down to Portsmouth.