Web programming tools

[Richard Gaskin]

eric.allen.engle at justice.com wrote:

> My gist is : why not have the engine/frontend ACT like
> a plugin AND like an independant application? I.e. you
> download the MC/RR plugin, you use it to visualize
> media (AND I DO THINK THAT MC/RR SHOULD CONTINUE TO
> DEVELOP AS A QUICKTIME GENERATOR - sorry for yelling
> that's important for marketing to understand though;
> flash is way to expensive. so is final cut pro. MC/RR
> could however weigh in easily as a quicktime generator.

Flash is $299, no?

As for an MC plugin, we'd need to identify the specific objections to using
MC as a helper app to properly address them.  One of them is the perceived
download-and-install hassle.  But if we can get folks to deal with the
dwnload-and-install thang, we might as well use what we have right now, as
it can do more than a plugin could and it's here today.

The task of engineering a plugin is not necessarily atom-splitting.  It's
more a question of where we want the time/money spent:  do we want to have a
plugin that does less than the helper app e already have, or do we want
editable polygons, improved line reshaping, OS X drawers, etc.

I don't know about the others here, but the subset of cases in my own corner
of the world where a plugin would be more acceptable than a helper app are
close to zero (esp. considering MC's secureMode property which provides
security -- and functionality -- limitations on par with a plugin).  But I
have immediate need for the other three items I listed, and a whole lot
more.


It's tempting in many areas of life, MC being no exception, to think of
solutions as something outside of ourselves, to hang the future on "if only
I had  X", where X = anything not under our control.

But one of the beauties of MC, as with much of life, is the range of things
you _can_ do with sufficient drive and imagination.  While we wait for each
new feature release with baited breath, each time I'm still lamenting all
the things I have yet to master with the last version.

   "All men dream: but not equally.
    Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds
    wake in the day to find that it was vanity:
    but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men,
    for they may act their dream with open eyes,
    to make it possible."

        -  T. E. Lawrence

Dream of the ultimate helper app, with open eyes....


Side note on the caps: while it's true that there's a historic division
between engineers and marketers at most companies, with MC Corp. both
functions are managed by Scott.  I don't know how he gets the time to stay
on top of so many lists, but I have reason to believe he reads every post
here, even in lower-case. :)

-- 
 Richard Gaskin 
 Fourth World Media Corporation
 Developer of WebMerge 2.2: Publish any database on any site
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