The Blaze (Flash 9 codename) logo with some AS3 BitmapData fire fun. (2kb – Flash Player 9 required)
UPDATE: Check out the new version that reacts to a loaded music track.
Building the V3 Components for Flash 9
I’m really excited to finally be able to talk about the fact that we are working on the v3 components for Blaze (Flash 9) together with Metaliq and Adobe.
At the FlashForward Austin keynote, Mike Downey showed a number of new features in Blaze (Flash 9) including enhanced PSD (PhotoShop) import (yay!), new timeline tweening to actionscript functionality (looks super cool!), and the new component set built entirely in ActionScript 3. That means that I can now tell people what I’ve been so busy working on, and why I’m not blogging much or releasing new experiments on gallery incomplet. [Moved to incomplet.gskinner.com]
I can’t talk about specific details yet, but I can say that we are applying everything we learned about developing fast, light components from mCOM/GLIC to this new set (don’t worry mCOM owners, the v3 documentation will be a LOT better than mCOM’s initial offerings). I can also tell you that these new components will be much easier to skin visually, without touching code.
We’re having a blast coding these components, and are really enjoying working in ActionScript 3. There’s still some really frustrating moments, but overall I love the new language – switching back to AS2 is getting more painful by the day. Working with Metaliq and Adobe has been awesome – everyone is really dedicated to the project, and I’m confident that together we’ll deliver the best component set for Flash yet.
Hopefully I’ll be able to post some more specific info soon. In the meantime, I’d love to hear what you’re hoping to see in the new component set.
Garbage Collector Interactive Simulator
This is an interactive simulator I built to demonstrate how the Garbage Collector operates in Flash Player 9. It allows you to diagram objects and references, then see how reference counting, and mark and sweep routines would play out for your scenario.
It’s pretty easy to use. The object tool (round rect) let’s you click on the stage to add a new object, or click and drag an existing object to create a new object referenced from it. Objects display their reference count in real time. The two reference tools (lines) let you create strong and weak references by dragging from one object to another – the arrow indicates the direction of the reference. The selection tool lets you move/select existing objects and select references. I believe the buttons at the bottom are self explanatory, though it’s worth pointing out that Mark and Sweep are separate buttons. You can use the 1-4 keys to select tools, and the delete key to delete selected items.
Resource Management in AS3 Session Notes Available
I’ve just posted my session notes and source code for my talk on Resource Management in AS3 at FlashForward Austin. You can access them (along with all my other session notes) at gskinner.com/talks. It’s worth taking a look, even if you’ve read my previous articles as it includes simulations, interactive systems, and additional information.
I had a great time in Austin. The city seems to be a lot of fun – lots of good bars and barbecue. FlashForward seems to get better every time, and it was a nice change doing a purely technical talk. As always, it was wonderful meeting up with friends from the community, and meeting new Flash folk.
I should be finishing off the resource management series of articles in the next little while with the fourth installment on solutions and strategies.
Adobe Goes Green, Makes Green (and Platinum)
I just read a Business 2.0 article on Adobe’s environmental efforts, and all I can say is “wow”! In five years they’ve reduced electricity consumption by 35% and gas use by 41% while increasing staff by 80%. If those numbers are accurate, that’s a roughly 65% decrease in energy use per employee. Very impressive. At the same time, they’ve switched to environmentally friendly cleaning products, helped build parks, reduced water usage, and are instituting a company wide composting system.
All of this has led them to receive the first platinum rating for a corporate building from the U.S. Green Building Council. Perhaps more impressively, it has resulted in an increase in profitability. For a $1.1M initial investment, Adobe is seeing a savings of $1M per year. What a great example of environmentalism and capitalism being mutually compatible.
Kudos to Adobe for doing the right thing and proving it can be profitable. Beyond the financial and environment gains, I’m certain this move will win the brand some mental marketshare, and consumer goodwill (it worked for me).
Can’t wait to see them roll some of these ideas into 601 Townsend and the other Macromedia buildings.
[UPDATE: More kudos to Adobe here]
Flash 10th Anniversary
It’s been a great 10 years! I’ve been tinkering with Flash since FutureSplash, annd haven’t regretted a moment (well, I maybe regret the week I spent learning screens and forms in mx2004).
All the tenth anniversary activity has been awesome. I’ve really enjoyed looking back at old sites that really inspired me. The two that influenced me the most by far were nrg.be, which brought home to me just how cool Flash could be, and yugop.com, which woke me up to the full potential of AS for building experimental and reactive systems.
Ahh… those were the days. So much excitement, so many ideas still untapped! Flash is still awesome, but it doesn’t have quite the same pioneering aura that it had in the v4-5 days (though in its defense, you can actually make money with it now, which is a bit of a bonus).
Fun With Segway!!
I’ve always thought Segways were really cool, and really wanted to play with one. I even begged to ride the one at the Macromedia offices on a few of my visits, but it was always in another building, or otherwise unavailable (I think they just didn’t trust me with their expensive toy).
So, when Segway called me up and invited gskinner.com to design and build a mini-site for their brand new product line, I jumped at the chance. Work with a super cool, progressive client, building a site for an unreleased techno-gadget? Count me in.
AS3: Resource Management pt 3
This one took a little longer than I’d hoped – life’s too busy right now! In this third part of my series on resource management in ActionScript 3 I will be focusing on a few new tools in AS3 / Flex2 that let you track and manage memory more effectively. There are only a couple new “official” features that are specifically geared towards resource management, but they are very useful. These are supplemented by a handy unofficial feature, and of course there are lots of language features that can help you in more generic ways.