The other day I was discussing with some co-workers some of the new possibilities that AS 3.0 and Flash Player 8.5 offer, when one of them asked me what I thought was an interesting question: “Is Flash 8 really worth learning, when 8.5 will be out in a few months?”

This person, whom I’ll now refer to as “Bob” felt that with FP 8.5 coming so shortly after 8.0, that 8.0 wasn’t really worth investing too much time into learning the new classes or features available. Bob also felt that with the differences in coding from AS 2.0 to 3.0, it would be more worthwhile to devote time to learning AS 3.0.

Now, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, so here’s mine, and I’d like to hear yours. Just leave it in the comments if you like.

Will 8.5 solve all your problems? Most likely not. There is some amazing stuff that can be done, and already a lot has been done using just the alpha version of the new player. However, many clients aren’t going to need these new features. It’s up to you as a developer to help the client know what it’s going to take to get the job done. If they need something that would truly benefit from 8.5, then go for it. But if you’re using 8.5 just to say that you did, how does your client benefit? We all want to make money, but serving a client the best way possible is more important.

Another of Bob’s arguments was that with the current adoption rate of Flash, enough people will have 8.5 that we can bypass 8.0. Sure, the adoption rate of each new version of the Flash Player is constantly increasing, but that’s not a good enough reason. How many projects do you work on that need to be published for older versions of the player, because your client’s audience isn’t a group of early adopters? I’ve recently worked on projects that the client specified needed to be published for Flash Player 6. Which means I had to apply what I knew about Flash 6 and what I could and couldn’t do. If I had decided back then to not worry about Flash 6 because 7 would be coming, or even now to forget what I know about 6 because we now have 8, I would have been screwed.

Another example to consider is FlashLite 1.0. How many people have started to develop FlashLite apps, but are having a hard time with it because when Flash 5 and then 6 came out, they flushed any Flash 4 knowledge out of their heads? I’m having a hard time with it because I never actually used Flash 4. I started using Flash about a month before Flash MX was released. (So, I guess I could claim that I’ve been using Flash since 5, but in reality, all I did were some simple animations, then the school received it’s copies of Flash MX and I started using AS with Player 6. But I digress…) FlashLite 2.0 is coming soon, with it’s abilities being closer to those of Player 7. But that really hasn’t stopped me from trying to wrap my head around FlashLite 1.0. Many users with Flash-enabled mobile devices will still be using FlashLite 1.

It reminds me of those folks who hold out buying a computer when they need one, because a faster one will be out in six months. Of course there will be a faster computer. There always will be. If you keep waiting, you’ll never get what you need. When I bought my PowerMac, it was shortly before the 2.5 gHz G5 was released. I had been considering the 2.0 G5, but decided to wait that extra month. Once the new one was released, I ordered the 2.0. Why? I decided that if the 2.0 was good enough for what I needed to do a month ago, it was still good enough now. I waited the extra month because I knew I’d save myself a few hundred bucks. I’m still happy with that decision. While the latest and greatest thing is nice to use, a lot of the time something that’s already available is just fine.

In the end, I think it boils down to this: Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Sure, AS 3.0 will let you throw thousands of particles all over the stage, or even connect to a VNC server, and that’s great for the clients that need it, but what about the client that just wants to have a simple animation done, or a basic Flash app?

There is a time and place everything, and there are definitely some projects that I’ve worked on that would benefit greatly from AS 3.0 and Flash Player 8.5. If we produce updates or upgraded versions of those apps in the future, then 8.5 will definitely be the way to go. But at the same time, some of those same projects could also benefit with a migration from AS 1.0 to 2.0. I recently did some updates for a project written in AS 1.0 and converted it to AS 2.0 more out of habit than anything else. It’s still published for Player 7, as there’s no need for it to require Player 8. The future of Flash looks amazing, and I can’t wait to see what we’ll be able to do with it.

Honestly, I think that only looking forward can set you back, if you don’t pay attention to what’s going on in the present.

So, I guess in order to sum up my opinion, is there really a reason not to learn all you can about the tools you use to make a living?

So, what’s your opinion? Leave a comment below.