Using just the timeline is limited. As I use Hype, I'm using JavaScript more and more. I'm using it so much now that I'm starting to wonder... why am I even using Hype? That's because Hype makes my job easier. It's tough to balance design and development. Hype has been great for turning around projects quickly, while learning web development.
I've been working professionally with creating websites / web pages since 1994. A lot has changed since then. Part of the challenge of being a good web developer / designer is the way the Internet has changed - and keeps changing.
Today... especially here - https://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/top ...I see a lot of trendy technology. Angular.js, node.js, Ruby on Rails, etc, etc, etc... and a beginner might feel like they don't know enough to keep up. What do I do? I ignore it.
There's a lot of hate on PHP these days. I don't care. They're not paying my bills. About 23% of the world's websites run on WordPress. (While 23% may sound small, that's a huge number of websites.) That's easy to setup in a LAMP environment... Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP. Even a beginner can do it in a few hours. Drupal (about 2% of the web) is great for managing complex websites. Drupal is also LAMP friendly. Acquia (the commercial side of Drupal) has an installer to setup a local LAMP environment with the Acquia Dev Desktop... https://docs.acquia.com/dev-desktop2
The Mac server app is also a quick alternative for local development...
So, instead of chasing the flavor of the month, I've been working with popular open source software and web standards. HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Apache, MySQL, PHP. And of course, I like Hype.
Are you dreaming?
I've been working towards running my own arcade (modernized from Brick-and-mortar to an online arcade) for decades. With Flash dying, things got seriously messed things up. But with Hype, I can see the pieces snapping together. Yes, it's a lot to learn to make it happen...
- Design (has to look pretty and be functional)
- HTML5/CSS3 (One standard, but lots of browsers)
- JavaScript (great programming language for the web)
- PHP / MySQL (for database driven apps)
- Apache (Common web server)
That's what I use pretty much every day. Sure, there's nginx, a ton of JavaScript libraries, and lots of other programming languages. I don't have enough time in the day to chase them all. So, I've focused on common and popular web tech.
Even after decades of experience, I still haven't been able to do something that's at a fairly moderate level of complexity. Part of it is just sitting down and getting it done. That's hard to do when other projects have higher priority. The other part is that it is challenging stuff.
So, should you give up on Hype? I found myself asking myself that question recently. More and more of what I do in Hype is requiring JavaScript. It's getting to the point where I don't even use the Timeline to get things done. Here's an example... Geometry question - #2 by Photics ...The arrow moves with pure JavaScript.
So why use Hype? For me, it's hard to balance design and development. Hype makes it easier to merge the two. I can turn around projects quickly with Hype. Also, I'm learning a lot more about JavaScript by working with Hype, Trying to make Hype a true replacement for Flash has made me a much better web developer.