Flash® Catalyst™ CS5 Bible

Chapter 0. Dive Into Flash Catalyst CS5

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Rich Internet applications

• Using Catalyst with other applications

• Introducing Adobe Illustrator CS5

• Introducing Flash Catalyst CS5

• Introducing Flash Builder 4

Most popular software used by professionals today has been around for a long time. Office workers spend large parts of their days using Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Those applications were introduced more than a quarter-century ago between 1983 and 1985.

Graphic designers may spend their days using Adobe Illustrator, which was developed in 1987, and Adobe Photoshop, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in a gala event in San Francisco in February, 2010. Even the Web, considered by many to still be new, will be about 20 years old by the time you read this, having been first developed in 1990.

Thus, while users may feel that they are constantly playing catch-up with a seemingly endless string of new versions, rarely do they have the opportunity to work with a brand-new application. If you are reading this book, however, that is precisely what you are contemplating: working with a never-before-seen application.

Using mature products that have existed since before many people began using computers, and in fact since before some of today's users were even born, has advantages, chief among them a strong base of experts who can teach and guide users through the program.

While Adobe marketing has decided to brand this new application as Flash Catalyst CS5, you should remember ...