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-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [mmugs] Please take a moment to vote for Flash support to be added to NaturalDocs
Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 07:50:16 +0100
From: Aral Balkan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: Macromedia User Groups <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Macromedia User Groups <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Hi everyone,
Yesterday, I started a campaign that is long overdue and I'm (literally) putting my money where my mouth is: We need a standard, open-source documentation format for ActionScript 2 and NaturalDocs (http://naturaldocs.org/about.html) is just the candidate. Unfortunately, it currently doesn't have ActionScript 2 support.
That will change however, if you send an email to NaturalDoc’s author, Greg Valure, at [EMAIL PROTECTED], kindly asking for ActionScript 2 support to be added.
Furthermore, for every vote that you CC me on at [EMAIL PROTECTED], my company Ariaware (http://ariaware.com) will donate $1 for the cause until we have up to twice the current highest donation at the time of this writing (which is currently $120 for Ada support). Even if we don't get enough votes, we'll donate enough to put full language support for ActionScript at the top of the list but we can't do it with a donation alone: Your votes will make the difference.
We only needed 12 votes to beat the currently top-voted C++ and we got 20 votes since last night, when I posted this. However, this may not be enough, even with out monetary donations to push ActionScript support to the top of the list because C++ is perceived to have a high "general importance" (ie., lots of people use it in the world.) If we can considerably open the margin, however, we can guarantee that ActionScript support is the next thing added -- I personally want to see 240 votes so 220 to go! We can easily reach this target, so let's get cracking -- one email is all you need to send!
* What is NaturalDocs?
Unlike JavaDoc, with its own syntax that is anything but easily
readable, NaturalDocs does most of its work by examining your code and
creating documentation from it. Where it uses your comments, the
formatting it requires is intuitive ("natural") and unimposing
(http://naturaldocs.org/documenting.html). The idea behind this is that
your comments and thus your code are kept readable. This is very
important, especially for those of us who strive towards literate
programming, where the comments are perhaps even more important than the
code itself (think maintainability, scalability and team development!)* Why NaturalDocs?
With NaturalDocs, you spend your time writing readable comments and NaturalDocs does the hard work of converting that into pristine HTML documentation. And what do you do? You concentrate on expressing your intent as clearly as possible and implementing your business logic -- which is what you should be spending the majority of your time doing with any good development process (I love Agile Development, and specifically eXtreme Programming, for a reason!)
Furthermore, since NaturalDocs is open-source, it can be extended upon by members of the Flash Community to fit our current and future needs. Support and tools can be developed, for example, for including output in the Flash documentation panel or in any future Flash help panel or documentation extension.
It’s also cross-platform and runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.
Why are you doing this?
It's not because I have money to burn but because I want to see us raise the standards of Flash and RIA development. This is why we released the Ariaware RIA Platform (ARP - http://ariaware.com/products/arp) as open source and this is why I'm touring the world talking about Best Practices Flash Development. The time for RIAs is here but we need standards, mature development tools and reliable development processes to guarantee that Flash and Flash-related technologies maintain their place as the leading technologies in this field. It's all about lowering the risks, perceived and actual, that surround RIA development.
The uptake of ARP, especially by leading Flash community members, has been amazing to behold. (One of my more memorable ARP experiences occurred after my talk in Belgium when an attendee walked up to me and said that his medium-sized company had considered RIAs but had decided against it but after seeing ARP, he was going to get his company to reconsider.) ARP is quickly becoming the standard structural framework for Flash and Flex RIAs but there are still areas in which the industry is lacking. One of these is the lack of a standard, open documentation system for ActionScript 2. This is where NaturalDocs comes in.
You can make a difference, vote now!
Send an email to NaturalDoc’s author, Greg Valure, at [EMAIL PROTECTED] asking for ActionScript 2 support to be added to NaturalDocs and CC me at [EMAIL PROTECTED] For every vote that I get CCed on, Ariaware will donate $1 for the cause until we have up to twice the current highest donation at the time of this writing (which is currently $120 for Ada support). I will be posting updates of the current vote count on my blog, FlashAnt.org, as the vote progresses. Even if we don't get enough votes, we'll donate enough to put full language support for ActionScript at the top of the list but we can't do it with a donation alone:
Your votes will make the difference!
Thanks for helping make Flash better :)
All the best, Aral
-- Aral Balkan Managing Director, Ariaware Ltd.
Tel: +44 (0) 870 7542240 Fax:+44 (0) 870 7542240 Mob: +44 (0) 779 5551278
* Web: http://www.Ariaware.com <http://www.ariaware.com> * Blog: http://www.FlashAnt.org * Macromedia Certified Instructor Flash MX 2004 Advanced ActionScript Development Flash MX 2004 Professional ActionScript Development * Director of Educational Content - Ultrashock <http://www.Ultrashock.com> * Author - Friends of ED <http://www.FriendsOfEd.com>, Macromedia DevNet <http://www.macromedia.com/devnet> * Director - London MMUG <http://londonmmug.org>
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