Vivi's developer blog

De multe ori cand intrebi ‘programatorii adevarati’ (a se citi Linux Open Source obsessed 🙂 ) despre Flash si de ce nu il prefera iti vor spune ‘pentru ca este proprietar, nu poti sa faci ce vrei tu cu el, etc’.

Astazi Adobe a anuntat deschiderea formatului swf, o veste buna pentru comunitatea Flash si pentru platforma in general.

Wadhwani said the Open Screen project has five basic elements. Adobe will remove license restriction on the .swf file format. “It is published already, but in order to view it you have to say you will not create a competing player,” said Wadhwani. “We’re lifting that restriction. People have been worried about vendor lock-in. This will remove that obstacle, and concern.”

Deasemenea Adobe va renunta la taxele pentru telefoane mobile, intelegand in sfarsit ca this is the only way to go.

Adobe will also remove licensing fees for embedding Flash Player on devices. The software has always been a free download for PC users. But Adobe has charged for embedding on devices. Those charges will disappear with the next release of the software.

Damn it, penetrarea versiunilor noi de Flash Player devine din ce in ce mai rapida. Nu mai am rezistat si in seara asta am luat la puricat Actionscript3. Woohoo! 🙂 Este incredibil cat de mult a evoluat Flash-ul, ce vremuri dom’le cand faceam site-ul Divertis in Flash4. 🙂

Incep sa ma simt batran. 🙂

Flash Forward in Austin is over.

The conference was ok but I couldn’t say I am super excited about it. I met some nice people, but then again, also met some very full of themselfs speakers too. 🙂

And because there were a lot of young speakears, it made me wonder if maybe Flash has the developers it deserves. 🙂 I can see Actionscript being like the snowboarding of programming languages, where as Java is like skiing, C++ hardcore skydiving without a parachute and LISP some sort of golfing. You can do really neat tricks on a snowboard, but how come the Olympiads are won only by 17 year olds? 🙂

On the upside, I went to some really inspiring presentations like the one from Hillman Curtis about how he is doing video now. There has been some nice stuff about Apollo and the vision of the Adobe guys on it (though it’s pretty alpha and they didn’t sort out some of the details).

There was a nice session on how the garbage collection in AS3 works and how easy it would be to skrew things up with memory leaks. While he had good points and recommendations about using weak references, I have doubts about his need for using weak pointers *everywhere*. 🙂 I mean… listeners, hash maps, caches, okay. But everywhere?

On the downside, there were a few sessions that really made me angry. One, about Flash controlling the browser, where the speaker was recommending that you embed Javascript code inside the Actionscript code. Just keep it there as a string and then do a getURL(‘javascript: eval(str)’); on it, he was saying. This is so wrong from so many points of view that I just got up and left.

Another talk that dissapointed was the guy from Yahoo that was supposed to talk about AS2 to AS3 migration. Instead, he presented the Yahoo Maps API written in AS3, talked about all the things you can do with it and advertised Yahoo flash-related jobs in the end. That was just plain wrong.

All in all, it was nice being there, though it will probably be my first and last year at FlashForward.

So i’m here. Flash Forward Conference, 2006. O editie aniversara, Flash a implinit 10 ani anul asta si ce e drept, s-a dezvoltat si s-a schimbat mult pe parcurs.

Prezentarea la care sunt acum vorbeste despre Apollo care vrea sa ofere un framework si un runtime pentru aplicatii care ruleaza la fel pe orice OS si orice masina. Scrii o singura data si distribui anywhere. Suna cunoscut? 🙂

Bineinteles, vor sa reuseasca acolo unde Java nu a reusit acum 10 ani. O idee interesanta, ramane de vazut daca vor reusi sa reinventeze acest concept si sa repare punctele acolo unde Java a gresit. Fostii entuziasti Java (chiar asa, mai e cineva care crede ca Java mai poate produce desktop applications? 🙂 ) vor urmari probabil cu scepticism evolutia Apollo. We’ll see.

Asa ca pentru cateva zile probabil ca voi posta ceva mai… development related. 🙂 Cheers from Austin, Texas.

[update] Am intrebat de ce crede prezentatorul ca vor reusi unde Java nu a reusit. Raspunsul lui a fost ca, atunci cand Java a aparut nu a existat o nevoie din piata care intr-adevar sa caute un raspuns.

Ideea a fost si este foarte buna, dar nimeni nu simtea nevoia asta. Ei cred ca in acest moment nevoia exista. Out there sunt toate aceste aplicatii-web care apar si care au succes pentru ca ruleaza in orice browser, pe orice masina, la fel. Mizeaza pe faptul ca dezvoltatorii acestor aplicatii vor vrea sa le mute pe desktop unde sa mearga mai repede si sa scape de limitarile browserelor.

Eu unul sunt inca sceptic. Multe lucruri trebuie sa se intample asa cum trebuie ca viziunea asta sa functioneze and you never know daca chiar or sa se intample asa cum trebuie.

[update2] un sumar al prezentarii Adobe de dimineata si niste link-uri utile pe blogul conferintei.

[daca nu sunteti programatori, puteti sari mesajul asta dar sa nu va suparati, ca titlul spune “developer’s blog” 🙂]

Flash-ul nu inceteaza sa ma mai uimeasca din cand in cand cu cate o chestie. 🙂
Se pare ca Actionscript suporta nativ hash-urile la nivel de obiect incepand cu Flash Player 5 si o face extrem de flexibil… iar eu am aflat abia azi. 🙂

At its core, an associative array is an instance of the Object class, and each key-value pair is represented by a property and its value. […] The following example creates an associative array using an object literal, accesses items using both the dot operator and the array access operator, and then adds a new key-value pair by creating a new property:

var myAssocArray:Object = {fname:"John", lname:"Public"};
trace(myAssocArray.fname); // Output: John
trace(myAssocArray["lname"]); // Output: Public
myAssocArray.initial = "Q";
trace(myAssocArray.initial); // Output: Q


Sursa aici.

Partea proasta? Nu ai functii implementate pentru a controla diversi parametri ai hash-ului sau a ii numara elementele de exemplu.

Din aceeasi serie de mici descoperiri vad ca si documentatia pentru Flash8 este mult mai buna decat documentatiile de la versiunile anterioare. Yuhu! Deh, cand dezvolti site-uri de larg consum (ca doizece sau 5pm) esti mereu cu cateva versiuni in urma. 🙂

Imi place Flash-ul pentru ca ma fortzeaza sa fiu extrem de eficient atunci cand programez… si ma face deseori sa realizez ca unele lucruri puteau fi facute si mai simplu, cu acelasi rezultat final. Complexitate, structuri de date, preprocesari, toate conteaza. Trebuie sa fiu eficient la sange, O(2n) este departe de a fi O(n) si daca vreau sa fac mai mult de 1000 de operatii pe frame, ar trebui sa ma gandesc de doua ori.

E un dezavantaj atunci cand unele lucruri pur si simplu nu pot fi facute. Mi-a scos peri albi, mi-a generat frustrari, nervi si toate cele. 🙂 … cine a mai programat Actionscript, stie despre ce vorbesc. 🙂

Dar este un deliciu atunci trebuie sa fac compromisuri intre calcule sau aproximari ale acelor calcule, intre ce as vrea sa iasa si ceva aproximativ la fel, intre un rezultat real sau un rezultat care ofera iluzia realului… si-mi iese. Este deliciul creativitatii.

Si tuturor ne plac provocarile care se termina cu bine, nu? 🙂

Se pare ca Macromedia a ascultat si vocile dezvoltatorilor care simteau nevoia de un IDE bun pentru codare in Flash si in curand vor scoate un produs care integreaza dezvoltarea Flash in Eclipse.

Sursa: zdnet, macromedia.

Abia astept! 🙂

S-a lansat si, ca de obicei, de pe site-ul Macromedia poate fi descarcat un trial de 30 de zile.