For the life so me, I don't see the sense in the decision to hobble Photoshop by deliberately withdrawing support for configurator based flash panels. I fully understand that configuratior will no longer be maintained or updated but, as it already exists and many people use it, where is the sense in deliberately breaking Photoshop so configurator based panels can no longer be used there? This seems like madness to me!
Over the last few days, I've been grappling with the learning curve required to use the extension builder, and it's something I'm determined to do, in time.
I'd like to say that my quest for teaching myself how to use extension builder was something I have a burning desire to do, but in reality that's really not the case at all. I've had no choice in this, simply because I know that if I build my next panel in Configurator, six months down the line that panel will be no use at all, because by then Photoshop will have been deliberately broken, in terms of flash panels, and I'll no longer be able to use them there!
Let me make it clear, amidst the fog of sparse and foggy tutorials about exstention builder, I see great potential for HTML5 based panels, but for me, and other non-coders out there, it really is just potential, and not something we can simply pick up and use today.
Configurator, on the other hand, clunky as it is, gives everyone the ability to put really effective and functional panels together in a few minutes, after viewing a few basic tutorials... Panels that can be easily made to access tools, scripts, actions, and (just about) everything else. We can include the download of remote files, server based video, and a whole host of other tricks, via a simple drag-and-drop environment, ideally suited to us creatives, to us lowly non-coders.
The HTML5 route is fine with me, as long as that includes a configurator based interface (optional, maybe), which enables anyone used to configuratior to use it in the same/a similar way to the way we use configurator.
The more I think about this, and the more I struggle up my EB learning curve, the more I get this niggling thought that somehow, someone is on a mission here to make Photoshop panel design the sole preserve of 'The Coders', and inaccessible to photoshop creatives who haven't been initiated into such hallowed halls! and who don't know the secret handshake! I appreciate that HTML5 panels are 'Way cool!', but that in itself is no reason to rob Photoshop of the ability to engage with the 'not so cool' technology of configurator panels.
In many respects, I suppose scripting (which I use in my configurator panels) is a great deal 'cooler' than actions, but no one at Adobe have ever broken (sorry, 'updated') Photoshop so that it can no longer access actions, leaving users with no other option than to use scripts!
I'm not making an appeal here, I'm saying, categorically, that robbing PS of the ability to talk to configurator panels is a very poor commercial decision, and I truly think it's the first time I've seen a software company wind back the clock in terms of an applications features.
Yes, let's have HTML5 panels... They sound fantastic... But let's keep the ability to use their less erudite, not so cool configurator counterparts. To do any other is to make many remarkably useful existing panels and extensions unavailable to Photoshop users.
It's been quoted that the reason for pulling configurator extension support is the fact that not enough has been made of them by the Photoshop community, and not enough of these extensions have been shared or made available to the wider public. That is certainly a valid point, but it has to be pointed out that many configurator panels are machine-specific, and the fact that these panels are not shareable does not mean that their creators are not teaching other photoshop users and students how to make them! The fact of the matter is that all of these extensions and panels can be made useable by all, if we bundle machine-specific presets and resources with them which, once again, we can do via configurator.
Come on, Adobe, don't be so short-sighted here, shuffle maintenance of configurator off into that darkened room where all Labs projects go, but leave the ability for Photoshop to use them!
I'm currently putting together a watercolour panel which will be very useful for all of my students... Given my current level of EB knowledge, this may never see the light of day.
With respect,
Tim Shelbourne.
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