DENG, the xTechnologies browser built in Flash has officially been released by my good friend Claus Wahlers, and Mozquito. Check it out, it’s inspiring.
Author / Grant Skinner
What would you like to learn?
I’m currently working on preparing articles and conference talks, and would love to know “What would you like to learn about Flash?”. I have lots of ideas, but I’d really like to hear what you (yeah, YOU, the person reading this right now – not the next guy) wants to learn.
So put the comment system to a use other than herbal viagra spam, and tell me what YOU want to know!
More EULA woes…
Since I first blogged about the issues surrounding the F04 EULA, and the restrictions it places on sharing code, there has been a very informative discussion going on in the comments between myself, Nigel Pegg, and a few other members of the community. Nigel has done a great job trying to explain the issue from Macromedia’s perspective (thanks Nig).
The super-condensed summary of this discussion (and my apologies to anyone I misrepresent here) is that developers would like the freedom to distribute and use modified versions of the built-in classes, but Macromedia is concerned this will lead to confusion if they update the component framework internally, and they do not want to see a competing framework emerge.
Now, this issue as it relates to sharing code in the community is one we can debate somewhat leisurely, as it doesn’t have a major impact beyond slightly retarding the growth and learning of said community. The real problem arises when you look at how it impacts real, paid projects!!
New monitor – wow!
I just bought myself a new 17″ Sony LCD, and I’m impressed! I’ve been eye-balling this model, due to it’s nice design and great specs, but had put it off as a future present to myself. Then, yesterday I found it had been discontinued at Staples, and was $350 less than I had seen it anywhere else. Needless to say, I bought it, much to the chagrine of my lovely girlfriend.
Other than a single stuck pixel (darn), this monitor is beautiful. It’s 500:1 contrast ratio and 250 cd/m2 brightness is expressed in one of the widest color ranges I’ve seen in an LCD (compare to the apple 17″ LCD at 350:1 and 200 cd/m2). My 15″ Powerbook’s screen is seriously disgusting in comparison (see this pic – the Sony on the left, and my PB on the right). I just hope my new 12″ Powerbook’s screen compares better when it arrives.
[EDIT:] Did a little digging around, and found a $50 mail-in, too. That means I got the monitor for over 40% off the regular local price. Good deal! [/Edit]
EULA hindrance to sharing code
I recently completed a re-write of the mx.events.EventDispatcher class based on my gDispatcher class. This re-write allows me to plug the new class into a project, and have all of the Macromedia components express all of the event capabilities that I built into gDispatcher.
Now, I would like to be able to share this code with the community, as I think it will be very beneficial to everyone, unfortunately, the Flash MX 2004 End User License Agreement prohibits it. I could distribute the new EventDispatcher class, because it is a complete re-write, but in order to make it work seamlessly with UI components, I had to slightly modify the UIEventDispatcher class. According to the EULA, I cannot distribute uncompiled “sample code” even if it is modified, and the built-in class AS files are considered sample code.
IE Active Content Changes
Everyone and their mother will be blogging this, but for good reason – this is an important issue, and one we have to start addressing sooner rather than later.
Information on the changes to how Internet Explorer handles active content (like Flash and Shockwave) is now available at:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/ieupdate
http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/activecontent
It’s better than it could have been, but it’s still going to be a pain. Thanks Eolas! (who’s up for TPing their corporate offices?)
Macromedia has been very responsive to this issue, and should have utilities to help us transition smoothly available soon (good job MM!!). It will soon be our turn, as developers, to ensure the transition continues smoothly. It should be our collective goal to make sure that when the first browsers with this change hit consumers in early 2004, users are met with a minimum number of prompts – we really don’t need to give people a new reason to hate/disable Flash.
[EDIT:] Does anyone know the answer to this very important question:
Does anyone know if the new IE differentiates between disabling Active Content prompts, and disabling ALL Active Content? This one issue will have a huge impact on our industry.
Kill me now…
An explicit photo of my life for the past 2 days. Viewer discretion is (jokingly) advised.
Yes, those are all very much used. There’s lots more in garbages throughout my loft.
I hope this is almost over…. 😛
[code] GForm: Form class extended
I recently completed a tutorial for Ultrashock on creating an MVC based application using forms and screens. Writing it was more of a struggle than I expected, in part due to the lack of documentation on the subject at the time (it has improved since), but also because the current Form implementation lacks a couple of elements that I would consider requisite for developing a clean application:
- The Form class does not include a collection of child forms. This means that you can only reference child forms by a largely arbitrary index number, not by name, unless you declare each child form manually in your class.
- Because the class initializes before the UI components it contains and its child forms, it is very difficult to write logic that sets up and populates interface elements initially, or sets listeners on child forms.