Back in May 2007, I posted about Flash and UML. I mentioned Saffron in the post and Samuel Agesilas (author of Saffron) posted a comment saying, “I’m honored that you would like to be on the private alpha. I most certainly can put you on that list. I will email you all of the info,” but I never received any info, even after a couple of follow-up e-mails. Then, he finally responded saying life got busy (I can definitely relate, understand, and sympathize) and that he was planning on posting a public beta the 2nd week of December and he said “I will however shoot you an early build sometime before [then],” but I still haven’t seen anything. His last Saffron blog update was back on October 6th.
Maybe life got too busy and he’s no longer working on it? I would gladly continue work on it if you happen to be reading this and need any assistance Sam. I would have started my own Flash UML project had I not discovered Saffron and seen how gorgeous it looks. I hope to see this project’s development continue!
Does anyone have any further information?
Heya Nate — check out this post’s comments for more info on Saffron:
http://blog.ff9900.org/?p=40
Left by Jon MacDonald on January 14th, 2008
http://blog.ff9900.org/?p=40
Bottom of the post
Left by Campbell on January 14th, 2008
I talk to Sam on a regular basis (well, I guess as regular as talking to Sam on AIM can be, he’s all over the place
) and last he told me about it was that he’d have a private alpha by end of year. I haven’t asked him since and his AIM status usually says “EXTREMELY BUSY DO NOT DISTURB” or something to that effect, but I still IM him and disturb him every once in a while just for fun. I think that (and I’ve told him this personally) the project is suffering from feature overload. He keeps adding features on and rewriting them rather than releasing it in its current state and just adding new features later, but that’s just how Sam is. But then again I’m also trying to get him to go out for some drinks or a barbecue for like half a year now, so who knows what will happen with Saffron 
Sam, if you read this lil buddy, I still love you.
Left by Matt Przybylski on January 14th, 2008
I don’t mean to spam your blog, but I just read that UML post as well (should have read before I posted) and from my understanding in previous talks with Sam, Saffron was never intended to be a free tool. I don’t know if he changed his mind about it, but considering how much work he has put into it, I doubt it.
Left by Matt Przybylski on January 14th, 2008
vay poo ware
Left by Brendan on January 15th, 2008
Just saw this post earlier and it looks like FITC Amsterdam is the time the beta is being released:
http://blog.ff9900.org/?p=40
Left by Kelvin Luck on January 15th, 2008
I got a similar email. Really hoping that Sam will have time to finish this! There’s some discussion on it here today:
http://blog.ff9900.org/?p=40
J
Left by Jensa on January 15th, 2008
I’m concluding that either Saffron is a very beautifully designed but not-at-all built app, or something else has come up in Sam’s life and he won’t be completing it any time soon.
We’ve all be on projects that grew out of hand, and I know there have also been rumours of acquisition and non-disclosure but I’ve never known a software company to buy a hot product and not have a press release out before the ink is even dry.
I’m wondering whether there is interest in a ‘many hands make light work’ approach to this situation? If there were a bunch of us and we took something akin to the Saffron interaction design and reduced the scope to UML -> AS3 + asdoc as a starting point then perhaps we could agree some standards, divide it up and get this thing flying fairly quickly?
I personally need a UML -> AS3 tool asap, I have used Visual Paradigm but it just clunks for me. I’m on mac so Enterprise Architect isn’t an option (running parallels just feels like more hassle again).
I actually planned on starting this project almost a year ago – as I’m sure did many others who, like me, saw Saffron and decided to just leave it to Sam, who appeared to be doing something much more comprehensive than what I could manage.
Please get in touch if you’re interested. I’ll start a google group next week and see if I can gather a few people together and kick this thing off open-source.
Lx
Left by Lindz on April 4th, 2008
I’ve shoved up a page to register interest:
http://flair-flash-flex-air.blogspot.com/2008/04/open-source-saffron-like-uml-tool.html
It would be good to have anyone on board – no contribution is too small.
Left by Lindz on April 4th, 2008