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Flash is dead, long live OpenFL

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Re: Flash is dead, long live OpenFL

#51

Post by IanCal »

tbrock wrote: post #43
slacka wrote: post #17

For those not familiar with OpenFL, /u/larsiusprime posted a nice summary of how it's used: "OpenFL is is a programming API that mirrors the Flash API, but in the Haxe language. So you take your old ActionScript code and port it over to Haxe (very similar language, but with additional features). Then you also take your Flash-vector-art SWF files, and you load it with the Haxe SWF library. OpenFL ensures you can still…

So basically, the open source community made a better flash than Adobe did? That is rather amazing considering the resources of the respective groups.

They've done it twice. MotionTwin did a lot of work in AS2 so they built a better compiler for it (MTASC), which compiled faster and made faster swfs (it's still used in production at the BBC).

Then when AS3 came out they seem to have thought "Oh come on!" given the quality of the compiler and language features so they built a better language. Again, faster and better compilation, as well as properly implemented things like generics (particularly compared to the awful implementation in AS3).

It's a lovely little language, and cross compiles to a vast range of platforms with ease. I built an android app which ran a webserver to control a TV app built in it (compiled to JS). I also had good success compiling it to PHP (cross-platform serialisation & deserialisation turned out to be easier and more performant than parsing XML on some low power devices).

MotionTwin made my working day so much better, not having to use the CS4 was wonderful.

Re: Flash is dead, long live OpenFL

#52

Post by fritz_vd »

zacharypinter wrote: post #47

> I've been a stalwart Flash developer for 15 years, so nothing bothers me more than greatly exaggerated reports of Flash's premature demise. ... > I've learned my lesson -- whatever my next platform is, no-one should be able to take it away from me. There's an interesting side discussion here. It seems to me that the rate of substantial changes in technology/frameworks/ui design/etc is increasing such that the expec…

It's maybe a bit more polite to say: Flash is not dead, it now compiles to multiple targets :)

Re: Flash is dead, long live OpenFL

#54

Post by lifeisstillgood »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #16
TomGullen wrote: post #11

> I could try HTML5, but that precludes releasing high-performance desktop-ready games for Steam. We develop Construct 2 ( https://www.scirra.com ) which is an HTML5 game engine. It can export to EXE via Node Webkit with very good performance, as well as the ability to export a multitude of mobile platforms as well. One game we're excited to see released in the near future made in Construct 2 is "Penelope": https://w…

Another example is ImpactJS, which allows you to write high-performance mobile-ready games! http://impactjs.com/

What if I was looking for powerful ways to develop JS apps rather than games?

Re: Flash is dead, long live OpenFL

#55

Post by alecsmart1 »

zacharypinter wrote: post #47

> I've been a stalwart Flash developer for 15 years, so nothing bothers me more than greatly exaggerated reports of Flash's premature demise. ... > I've learned my lesson -- whatever my next platform is, no-one should be able to take it away from me. There's an interesting side discussion here. It seems to me that the rate of substantial changes in technology/frameworks/ui design/etc is increasing such that the expec…

Flash did what any other technology is still unable to do (maybe with the exception of java)- offer a true cross platform solution. Look at webrtc. Its been over a year now since the hype and we still don't have support in half the browsers. Till date no technology does audio/video chat as well as Flash.

Re: Flash is dead, long live OpenFL

#57

Post by ANTSANTS »

ojii wrote: post #30
erichurkman wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least one major component is moving off of Flash: videos. Now, if you opt to forgo Flash on your device, the most you seem to miss are some games and annoying banner ads.

Unfortunately, as far as I know there's still no decent solution to stream video without flash (I'm talking Twitch et al here). Twitch is the only reason I still have flash on my computer (and not actually for watching games being streamed, but for the annual Desertbus event). Has the HTML5 video streaming improved at all over the past year?

I also kept Flash around mainly for this reason. It doesn't help people that want to make streaming video sites, but you don't need Flash to watch live video streams from sites like twitch.tv. You just need a media player capable of playing streaming video (mpc-hc, mpv, and vlc all work), and the livestreamer command line tool which extracts direct video stream URLs from twitch.tv pages.

http://livestreamer.readthedocs.org/

This works perfectly for me, arguably better than the Flash-based player. I uninstalled Flash a few months ago and haven't felt the need since.

Re: Flash is dead, long live OpenFL

#58

Post by Yorrrick »

TomGullen wrote: post #11

> I could try HTML5, but that precludes releasing high-performance desktop-ready games for Steam. We develop Construct 2 ( https://www.scirra.com ) which is an HTML5 game engine. It can export to EXE via Node Webkit with very good performance, as well as the ability to export a multitude of mobile platforms as well. One game we're excited to see released in the near future made in Construct 2 is "Penelope": https://w…

Also worth mentioning the announcements of numerous other game engines, including Unity and Unreal, supporting HTML5:

https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2014/03/18/gdc-2014-mozilla-an...

Re: Flash is dead, long live OpenFL

#59

Post by nnq »

mercer wrote: post #37
leccine wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly why security conscious people don't use flash. Html is supposed to be a document and not an application. We created this Frankenstein with Flash, Java and JS to make HTML pages appear other than documents. The net result is that you need to install these plugins otherwise you can't get the full experience. The real question is why do we let people to abuse technology instead of using it well. I have d…

> The real question is why do we let people to abuse technology instead of using it well. I am (still!) amazed by the gap between how I see a computer and how most non-geeks around me do. To them, it's like a set of different, often frustrating tools rather than, well, an amazing piece of technology that can be prodded to do whatever you want (to the point where an iPad with few to no apps can provide them with all t…

Jobs had his famous 'computers as bicycles for the mind' metaphor (I guess this is the origin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA_jypfKfAA), and this is how we geeks see them.

The problems are that:

1. computers today don't really look or feel like 'bicycles for the mind' to the average joe -- it's our job to make them look like what they really are instead of dressing them in pretty silky dresses (think all the iStuff...) OR, even worse, make them look like appliances (think the iOS devices that feel like a multi-tool, every app isolated by itself and very hard to move data from one to another) OR, even worse, cripple them on purpose (DRM, closed formats that are not cross-applicatin compatible etc.)

2. most people's minds are really bad at 'learning to ride bicycles'... hell, even teaching a human being to properly read and write takes a few good years -- so it's our jobs to make the bicycles easier to ride, but we should not forget the danger here: the way to make a bicycle easier to ride is not to hide that it's a bike! (this is kind of what we do with most of our UI/X paradigms, and it makes it easier for people to use computers as appliances, but much harder for them to realize they are mind-bikes)

Now that we have "a computer in everyone's pocket" we should get our heads out of our asses and show people what a computer really is!

And about 'using Excel for everything': I'd take this as a good thing! Excel is almost a goddamn programming language after all (and a functional one, btw), and it'as close as most will ever be to real programming.

Re: Flash is dead, long live OpenFL

#60

Post by perturbation »

From the default linux install script for OpenFL (http://www.openfl.org/haxe-3.1.1-linux-installer.tar.gz):

# Set up haxelib

                sudo mkdir -p /usr/lib/haxe/lib
                sudo chmod -R 777 /usr/lib/haxe/lib
                sudo haxelib setup /usr/lib/haxe/lib
This isn't as bad as I originally thought; I tested this, and only that directory itself is world-writable (the sub-directories from haxe install foo are universally readable and executable, but not writable). Still seems like someone could install a malicious 'dependency' ahead of someone else needing it.
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