Flash Coder

I posted an eralier article about the new Flash vp6.2 video codec and it got me thinking that a codec resource might be useful for all you crazy cats, so check out Free-Codecs.com

be excited, be very excited. If you thought video was getting a foothold in Flash in version 7 then get ready for it to take over the web in version 8 thanks to a large degree to On2’s vp6.2 video codec. This replaces the older H.263 codec in Flash 7 which was still revolutionary in terms of web based video delivery. Doug McIntyre from On2 gave this interview to Flash Magazine.

I’m a big fan of OO in Flash and whilst patterns are not the holy grail of all OO, they are very useful in developing an understanding of and an implementation methodology for OO. A set of simple and downloadable tutorials on Design Patterns in Flash is available here. This site was already mentioned by BeeDigital but I really feel it’s worth mentioning these really nice tuts as we’re all going to be OOing by the time AS 3 arrives and you should all be OOing now. There are only a few examples here at the moment.

Ever dream of the day when we’ll all wear spandex suits, fly around in hover cars and dogs will do the washing up? Well it’s a long way off matie, but in the mean time Fujitsu have created the first bendable color electronic paper. This will be sexy as hell. The commercial implications for this are of course massive and as a Flash developer I’m jolly excited that I’ll be able to create Flash interactive Baked Bean can labels and t-shirts.

Moving to OO programing is often confusing for Flash developers who are new to it, because it’s a big subject and you need to have reasonable proficiency in much of it to actually achieve anything. There’s a lot of groundwork involved and it can be confusing or just down right intimidating. Many of the Flash developers I have come across who are trying to get their heads round OOP in AS 2.0 struggle with the principals, so an overview would be helpful. Well here’s just such a thing.

Well actually, it doesn’t and that’s the point. I installed the Flash 8 Player and then I ran an FCS application I’d written and came across the new Macromedia Flash Player Security popup. All good and well but the two lines which say

“Local applications can read information on your computer or network, so you should be careful about letting them communicate with the internet” are badly worded.

Come on Macromedia. This message is going out to our clients. Why not just put FLASH KILLS ! Can we have a message that’s a little less broad and sweeping in putting all our non-flash savvy users off ever loading up our sites again incase every hacker in the world has access to their entire hard drive?

I am a strong believer in the use of UML. Not only because it genuinely makes an OO site easy to develop, maintain and understand but also because AS 2 is a professional development tool and Flash is now a ‘platform’ and we need to be seen to conform to recognised development standards if we’re going to be taken more seriously as OOP developers and if Flash is going to be taken more seriously as a legitimate RIA alternative (the useful upshot of this is that our rates go up to - muahaahaahaa). This article by Carlos Rovira has been around for a while but it’s a great intro to using UML and more of us need to be using it. If that get’s you horny baby then try Grant Skinners excellent Gmodeler.

I’m a Flash developer in London (no surprise) and until only two weeks ago I would have been on the circle line from Liverpool Street station coming into Aldgate station. I would have been sitting on the second from last carriage. And it would have been at about 8:50am. My children could well have been fatherless. Read the rest of this entry »

So they said “we need a ComboBox and we need it to have ‘these’ graphics and ‘these’ event colours and we need to be able to set the dropdown width from the component Property inspector. And we might think of other stuff to, so be quick about it”.

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Recently a friend asked me for 4 tips for using video in Flash. Not streamed via FCS, but straight use of the Flash player 7 video codecs. So here they are. Read the rest of this entry »