Well... maybe not insanity - but definitely frustration. The real crux in software development is keeping your 'bits' cruising along at attack speed; that is to say - keeping your application running and your users happy. The worst case scenario?

When people see these kinds of screens - it doesn't help anyone. Developers get a smear for not keeping apps/things up-to-date and worst of all... potential revenue turns into vapor. But! There is hope and it's called "The Marshall Plan."

Basically, it all grinds down to a single simple problem: version skew. We all understand what it means to keep your development rig running on the latest and greatest (no matter how painful) in order to make sure that old apps keep running. Frameworks/languages like Java and .NET offer backward compatibility... at the cost of huge downloads which most software users have grown to expect.

Except... when we are talking about the Flash Player; it's a quick and unobtrusive download. This is how its always been and its how Adobe wants to keep it. I'm down with that - but know that this is where the conversation turns to 'butts.' Yes... I said, 'butts.'

Butts #1: Backward compatibility was placed on the chopping block due to is monstrous cost
Butts #2: In-version compatibility is enforced by the compiler (don't have time to cover this one here)
Butts #3: Things like function overloading - NOPPER! (unless you get creative)

There are more 'butts' - but I want to stop there mostly because I won't want this post to leave you with a bad after-taste. There is hope and the creative minds at Adobe are hard at work on the solution. If you haven't had a chance to read up on this - it's a must read!

As far as release details go - the "Marshall Plan" is supposed to be included in the Flex 3.2 SDK update. No dates have been disclosed at this point... in the meantime there are plenty of goodies out there to play with between now and then.