I would like to introduce to you our ActionScript guru, and Cairo team lead, Yehia Shouman. Yehia has been with us almost since the beginning and has really changed the way we have done things on the front end. I am sitting down with him via the internet since we are currently separated by almost half the world.
Bill: Yehia, thanks for taking time to talk with me here. Can you tell me a little about why you decided to come on board and work with us on this project?
Yehia: Well, I would like to first thank you for giving me the chance to express my views about 'f515 here! There's alot to say about this platform. Well, without doubt the biggest hype in the internet applications development is the RIA's (Rich Internet Applications) and how they enable a richer experience on the internet. With Adobe Flash a complete new toolset was given to the web developers to enable them to produce super engaging applications than they were ever able before.The first time I heard of the project, I was pretty excited about it. Personally, there has always been some aspects that attracts me to join a project!
The technologies: The project was already decided to be implemented in Adobe Flash, Adobe Flash Media Server, Adobe Coldfusion and Adobe Flash Remoting for the communication between the backend services and the frontend. I have always been working on Adobe Flash since Macromedia Flash 4 but most of these technologies were somehow new to me. So I was instantly excited! There was that challenge for me!
The Idea: A complete RIA Flash-Based Video Platform with alot of richness in interactivity is definitely appealing to any developer. Working with Videos has always been appealing to me too as a fertile new field that software enterprises are nowadays competing in. Also I thought of how engaging it would be when flash rich interactivity is added.
The environment: The environment is a key. It makes a project work or fail! Working with the F515 team was really flexible, we were already organized into two teams; a backend team (BE) and a front end team (FE). I started as the first Frontend AS Developer to join and that has been a great honour to me. I can't remember a single day when I had a new idea haven't shared it directly with Bill or with the rest of the team. It was more fun than work!
So those 3 factors were there! and were enough to make me say "I am definitely in!".
BD: What did you bring that was particularly unique to the team?
YS: Oh Bugs ??! What else ! Well, I'd say on the technical level the adoption of Actionscript 2.0, Strong OOP. On the other side, I'd say as a team lead; the sense of ownership to the code they write, the love of what we do and more organization to which everyone was already open and ready for!
BD: What specific areas of the application are your main focus?
YS: Well, I've been always here and there! I wouldn't be able to look specifically at a certain part and say that this is my main focus or I haven't been there.
However, now that we are at version 2.0, my main focus is on facilitating that any additional class or component that is created for a new feature fits well between the other assets and is re-usable.
I try my best to be a problem solver, I take care of design and architecture of the Frontend Flash Component and the Data Format to be used between Frontend Flash Components and Backend Remoting methods.
We will pick up this conversation in an upcoming blog entry...
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