Tag: Flash
These items have all been tagged with "Flash". You can see other tags in the Tag CloudProject Tamarin
Tamarin is a new open source project, hosted by Mozilla, to promote the source code for the ActionScript Virtual Machine, the powerful standards-based scripting language engine in Adobe Flash Player.
It is aiming to fully implement ECMAScript Edition 4 (ES4) which will be used in SpiderMonkey, the next generation JavaScript engine used in Firefox and other Mozilla projects. The code is provided under the same triple license as Firefox: MPL, GPL and LGPL.
The new Flash Player 9 ActionScript Virtual Machine (AVM2) includes a JIT (Just In Time) compiler allowing acceleration of ActionScript 3.0 based applications (up to 10 times), which will be made available to the Moz' applications during 2008.
Motivation for Adobe in this move: standardize the ActionScript language and thus, spread it's usages, and by making it Open Source, attract developers. 7 of their own developers, including the creator of the VM, have been devoted to the project. It is hoped Tamarin will allow to "create and deliver richer, more interactive experiences that work across multiple platforms".
Notes: this is only about the scripting language, not Flash Player or Flash
Adobe, Flash, and ActionScript are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated.
From the project page's roadmap:
The Tamarin project is just getting started so the roadmap is not yet fully developed,
but some of the technical goals include:
- Integrating the Tamarin VM and garbage collector within SpiderMonkey
- Using the SpiderMonkey compiler to generate code for Tamarin
- Porting the just-in-time compiler to new hardware platforms
- Completing the self-hosting ECMAScript 4 compiler
List of current core Team members:
- Dan Smith, Adobe, Tamarin module owner
- Igor Bukanov, Mozilla, engineer
- Brian Crowder, Mozilla, engineer
- Jeff Dyer, Adobe, compiler architect
- Brendan Eich, Mozilla, CTO and JavaScript creator
- Graydon Hoare, Mozilla, engineer
- Steven Johnson, Adobe, Tamarin developer
- Edwin Smith, Adobe, Tamarin creator and VM architect
- Tom Reilly, Adobe, Tamarin garbage collector developer
- Rick Reitmaier, Adobe, Tamarin JIT developer
- Erik Tierney, Adobe, Tamarin developer
Flash Player 9 for Linux beta is available
This beta includes 2 gzip'd tarball packages:
- one is for the Mozilla
plugin and
- the other is for a GTK-based Standalone Flash Player.
The standalone Player (gflashplayer) can be run in place (after you set its executable permission). The plugin is dropped into your local plugin directory (for a local user) or the system-wide plugin directory.
This screenshot by Adobe's James Ward is from a pre-alpha version of Flash Player 9 running a JBoss Collaboration client on Linux.
Let me quote him on this:
Flex 2 and Flash Player 9 are changing how the world builds and
experiences web applications. Now we have a ubiquitous and consistent
virtual machine to run real applications in. And we have an amazing
programming model and SDK to build those applications with. Best of
all, it's all free (as in beer)! I have been working with JBoss on a
Flex based collaboration client and the results have been stunning.
It's beautiful, extremely fast, and as soon as Flash Player 9 on Linux
debuts it will work the same on any OS or browser, without any "if IE"
workarounds! When Apollo
is available this will get even more interesting since we can take the
same collaboration client application and run it offline, without the
browser!
Download | Release Notes | Version Test (after install)
SOL or Local Shared Objects editors
Flash cookies, known as SOL files, can store a lot of information without most users knowing about it. They are becoming widely used tools to track site visitors, just like the standard browser cookies, with the benefit of not being cleared when the user deletes his regular cookies.
SOL files are read on written by SWF files, and stored in a not easily accessible location. With the tool listed heere, it is possible to
- browse the stored SOL files
- read file contents
- modify variable values inside those files (usefull for testing)
- create new SOL files
ASV SOL Editor
With ASV SOL Viewer and Editor you can,
* Open and view SOL files,
* Edit contents of SOL files,
* Create new SOL files.
this is a tool which is free for ActionScript Viewer customers, and not available otherwise.
Viewing SOL Files
The contents of the open SOL file will be presented as a tree structure. The root item indicates the name of the Shared Object. You can edit this name using the File|Edit Object Name command. (However, changing the Object Name will render the SOL file useless. Not recommended unless you are creating a new SOL file).
Items listed at the first level below the Object name correspond to the properties of the Shared Object, of various types. Certain types can only have a value, some (like array) can have a child items which can be any of the other types.
Editing SOL Files
When an item is selected, the name of the selected property and its value (if applicable) will be shown on the panel to the right.
You can edit the Property Name and the Value fields, then press Enter or the Apply button to make it permanent (You'll still need to save the file though). For String and XML types, you can edit the Value in the text box (to insert a return character, press ctrl+Enter).
You can also save the contents of the text box to a file, or load it from a file, using the Save/Load buttons. (UTF8 encoded text/xml files are not fully supported in this version).
Creating new items:
You can either use the toolbar buttons or right-click menu to access the item related commands.
.sol Editor
This tool opens an existing shared object file (.sol) displays the contents of the file and allows you to change the variable values.
When you create a Flash movie wich uses the local shared object, it is useful to see what is stored and change the values to test all possibilities.
It can read values of type :
* Number
* Boolean
* String
* Object
* null
* undefined
* Array
* XML
* Date
It can't change the type of a value, but from version 1.0.6.0, you can add or remove values.
SolVE
SolVE is a Local Shared Object View/Editor that runs on both Mac OS X and Windows. Coded in Java with IBM's SWT, SolVE looks and behaves like a native application. Currently, SolVE supports the following data types in local shared object files:
* Number
* Boolean
* String
* Object
* Null
* Undefined
* Array
Features
SolVE is not entirely feature-rich at this point. Still in version .2, the interface allows for basic operations only. The main differentiator between SolVE and the other .sol editors (.sol Editor and ASV SOL Viewer/Editor) is that SolVE is a native solution for Mac OS X users and SolVE is available in languages other than English. Basic feature list:
* Runs on Mac OS X and Windows, as long as a JVM at least v1.4 is installed
* Create new .sol files
* Interactive tree display to visually inspect and change contents of a .sol file
* Internationalization support.
Ressources
Adobe Technote: What is a local shared object?
Flash Support Center: using SharedObject.getLocal
SOL file format: SOL file format by Alexis ISAAC
SWF Decompilers
A bad reputation for sometimes usefull tools: Decompilers allow you to read the ActionScript and extract ressources from SWF files.
Here are the best known of these tools, which might just come in handy some day when you need to look up in an swf which file it loads, or how that particular fonction works.. Range goes from free basic tool to commercial ones with many options:
-
Flare
is free, simple to use by right-clicking an SWF
-
SWF Decompiler
is very cheap but limited
-
AVE Imperator
is said to be good, haven't tested
-
Sothink SWF Decompiler
works well and allows you to recompile a fla from the swf
-
Eltima Flash Decompiler
has the same functionality
-
ActionScript Viewer, aka ASV
the best-known, very actively developed decompiler with many features and extensions
Various Flash News
It's been a while, so here's a short mix of interesting reads.
Flash team are asking for your feature requests for Flash 9.
- Player only
- Interactive designers and developers
- Designers and animators
Flash Player - Forward, Backward, Platform Compatibility
Nice article about Flash Players forward, backward, and platform compatibility and how it makes life so much easier for developers.
Smaller changes which caused some problems pointed out in the comments, such as IE7 detection, introduction of the sandbox and the crossdomain.xml policy file, POST data in Safari 1 and no native scrollwheel support on OS X..., are all the network, browser, or ui layers around Flash Player.
Current schedule for releasing the final version of Flash Player 9 for Linux is early 2007.
A a beta version [will be released] in advance of the final version. However, it will be a beta in the classical software engineering sense-- i.e., a version that we believe to be largely bug-free and submitted to the users in the hopes that the last of the bugs will be found and reported. by Mike Melanson
Proximity War
Very! addicitve game, a bit like Abalone if you know that: place your armies either next to a weaker oponent to take his over, or next to one of yours to strengthen it (ot both simultaneously), and try to have the strongest army /most territory at the end.
Blox
Nice game, seems easy at first, but once you're 3-4 levels in, it gets a bit more difficult.
Too bad the full version is commercial. 
Something for the brains.
Custom iPods and MacBooks with Laser Engravings: I want one!
Now I bought my Dell Inspiron 9300 just 8 months ago, and I love it so far. But I've always admired the looks of all Apple products, and wanted an iPod for a long time now, a PowerBook maybe longer. I just love OS X and everything Aqua.
I haven't made the move because I'm so used to the Win world, have all the app's I need and use, because I find it much easier to buy spare parts and replacements etc etc.. And Vista is supposed to get the "looks" part done.
But now.. I stumbled upon these very! cool photos, and have already contacted Etchamac about the iPod (because as most cheap Apple products online, what you guys pay in the US in $$, we overpay here in Europe in Euros -1 euro = $1.28 currently)!
A teaser first:
Now this Etchamac site has a very cool Flash Designer to make your very own design for your Apple product: any Pod, and the Laptops!
This RIA is very easy to use: select the product and options, upload your own images, logos, add text etc, and really customize the Pod Book as you want it, and go get it!
Wink: create interactive multimedia tutorials for free
Wink is a free Tutorial and Presentation creation software, primarily aimed at creating tutorials on how to use software (for example to explain some functionality of everybody's favorite CMS Joomla! ...).
Using Wink you can capture screenshots, add explanations boxes, buttons, titles etc and generate a highly effective tutorial for your users.
The cool thing about this software (apart from it being free) is that it generates an swf file which can very easily be presneted online. Capturing mouse movements and keyboard input is automated, so it is really esy to use and you'll quickly achieve professional results.
Developer SWF Guardian 1.5
What can DSG do for you?
- Manage access to your flash work even after it has left your hands (Even from a remote server!).
- Create time-limited licenses for SWF files.
- One license file manages the access of all internet viewers .
- Easy to use: No actionscript knowledge is required.
- Advanced custom actions: Allows actionscript developers to easily handle expired and non-expired keys with their own code.
- Virtually uncrackable key system: MD5 digest 'encryption' key validation. TEA encryption for secure key storage in component instances.
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