Re: [flexcoders] Re: Flex alternatives
Looks like Mike Chambers is responding on that thread. He is a better person to ask than me. Even though I work for Adobe, my main focus is on Apache Flex. I barely keep up with the plans and goals of the other teams, even the Flash Runtime, because at this time, Apache Flex isn’t counting on any new awesome features from Flash itself. Apache Flex is looking at publishing Flex apps for HTML5. One approach is described here: https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/FLEX/Alex%27s+FlexJS+Prototype Now, IMO, Flex apps are quite different from other Flash swfs, especially those that are timeline driven, so Apache Flex isn’t going to be the solution for everyone. On 5/10/13 12:42 PM, "John McCormack" wrote: Alex I pointed someone to this on Flashcoders: http://www.mail-archive.com/flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com/msg58770.html Do you have any new views on where Flash is heading? John On 20/12/2012 05:50, Alex Harui wrote: Re: [flexcoders] Re: Flex alternatives Well, there are several pieces. ActionScript is a language. It is really only the dozen classes or so in the “top-level” in the ASDoc. String, int, RegEx, Array, Vector, a few functions like unescape, etc, plus a bunch of keywords and stuff like “var”, “class”, plus a grammar of how you put it all together. It hasn’t changed much in years, other than the addition of Vector. There are no plans to improve on its specification by adding things it is missing compared to other languages like Java such as method overloading, or mutiple inheritance. Instead, Adobe is tossing out the whole specification and developing a next-generation of ActionScript. It will have some of the same things you see in the current ActionScript, but there will be new keywords and grammar. The goal is to give up on backward compatibility in order to get significant speed improvements by making the language easier to execute at runtime. ActionScript currently only runs in a Virtual Machine embedded in the FlashPlayer or AIR. Both runtimes provide additional APIs that allow you to draw stuff and get network i/o, etc. The current APIs use ActionScript 3 syntax and are focused primarily on Sprites, Shapes and MovieClips on a display list. New features were added in every major release. Now, Adobe is working on embedding a new Virtual Machine that runs the next-generation ActionScript in the FlashPlayer and AIR. The focus is on gaming, and a new set of APIs that talk to a 3d rendering engine is being devloped in the next-generation ActionScript syntax. There will be no support for the old Sprites/Shapes/MovieClips and display list. However, the old virtual machine that runs ActionScript 3 will continue to be embedded in the FlashPlayer and AIR that run on tradtional desktops/laptops. I would not expect it to be co-existent on mobile versions of AIR because the new focus is on the captive runtime workflow where you pre-process your ActionScript code and the runtime libraries into a device-dependent executable. So, given all of that, you can continue to deliver ActionScript 3 content in AIR or FlashPlayer on desktops/laptops “forever”. And unless you have heard otherwise from the PDF team, they probably won’t eliminate support for Flash in PDF on desktop/laptops soon. I think Apache Flex exists because folks have found the Flex workflow easy and productive and also safe because it uses structured programming, and former Flex customers are now pitching in to continue to evolve Flex as much as we can given the constraints of the current environment. The problem for many is that, because Adobe is not evolving the ActionScript 3 language, VM and runtime APIs related to it, folks see it as a dead end and no longer want to develop apps on it. I can see their point, but there is a reason why DOS is still around on some custom handheld devices: it works, it is well known, and has a small footprint for a constrained environment. Flash/AIR and Flex on ActionScript3 continue to be excellent ways to create apps quickly, but it has been difficult to convince customers to stick with it. Anyway, so far, the most interest in Apache Flex seems to be around trying to leverage the Flex workflow to create apps that run on the HTML/CSS/JS stack (without Flash). It will have growing pains for sure, but to me, a question about CPU load is premature. There is 1000’s of people from all over the world working on improving the runtime environment for HTML/CSS/JS. They have made significant advances in the past several years and I don’t see a cap on it. So any pain points you experience now are likely to be solved in the near future. If you can continue to use Flash/AIR and let others suffer through the growing pains, consider yourself lucky. Otherwise, put on some pads and join the battle. On 12/19/12 9:29 AM, "John McCormack" wrote: Thank you again. Although ActionScript is not being
Re: [flexcoders] Re: Flex alternatives
Alex I pointed someone to this on Flashcoders: http://www.mail-archive.com/flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com/msg58770.html Do you have any new views on where Flash is heading? John On 20/12/2012 05:50, Alex Harui wrote: Re: [flexcoders] Re: Flex alternatives Well, there are several pieces. ActionScript is a language. It is really only the dozen classes or so in the “top-level” in the ASDoc. String, int, RegEx, Array, Vector, a few functions like unescape, etc, plus a bunch of keywords and stuff like “var”, “class”, plus a grammar of how you put it all together. It hasn’t changed much in years, other than the addition of Vector. There are no plans to improve on its specification by adding things it is missing compared to other languages like Java such as method overloading, or mutiple inheritance. Instead, Adobe is tossing out the whole specification and developing a next-generation of ActionScript. It will have some of the same things you see in the current ActionScript, but there will be new keywords and grammar. The goal is to give up on backward compatibility in order to get significant speed improvements by making the language easier to execute at runtime. ActionScript currently only runs in a Virtual Machine embedded in the FlashPlayer or AIR. Both runtimes provide additional APIs that allow you to draw stuff and get network i/o, etc. The current APIs use ActionScript 3 syntax and are focused primarily on Sprites, Shapes and MovieClips on a display list. New features were added in every major release. Now, Adobe is working on embedding a new Virtual Machine that runs the next-generation ActionScript in the FlashPlayer and AIR. The focus is on gaming, and a new set of APIs that talk to a 3d rendering engine is being devloped in the next-generation ActionScript syntax. There will be no support for the old Sprites/Shapes/MovieClips and display list. However, the old virtual machine that runs ActionScript 3 will continue to be embedded in the FlashPlayer and AIR that run on tradtional desktops/laptops. I would not expect it to be co-existent on mobile versions of AIR because the new focus is on the captive runtime workflow where you pre-process your ActionScript code and the runtime libraries into a device-dependent executable. So, given all of that, you can continue to deliver ActionScript 3 content in AIR or FlashPlayer on desktops/laptops “forever”. And unless you have heard otherwise from the PDF team, they probably won’t eliminate support for Flash in PDF on desktop/laptops soon. I think Apache Flex exists because folks have found the Flex workflow easy and productive and also safe because it uses structured programming, and former Flex customers are now pitching in to continue to evolve Flex as much as we can given the constraints of the current environment. The problem for many is that, because Adobe is not evolving the ActionScript 3 language, VM and runtime APIs related to it, folks see it as a dead end and no longer want to develop apps on it. I can see their point, but there is a reason why DOS is still around on some custom handheld devices: it works, it is well known, and has a small footprint for a constrained environment. Flash/AIR and Flex on ActionScript3 continue to be excellent ways to create apps quickly, but it has been difficult to convince customers to stick with it. Anyway, so far, the most interest in Apache Flex seems to be around trying to leverage the Flex workflow to create apps that run on the HTML/CSS/JS stack (without Flash). It will have growing pains for sure, but to me, a question about CPU load is premature. There is 1000’s of people from all over the world working on improving the runtime environment for HTML/CSS/JS. They have made significant advances in the past several years and I don’t see a cap on it. So any pain points you experience now are likely to be solved in the near future. If you can continue to use Flash/AIR and let others suffer through the growing pains, consider yourself lucky. Otherwise, put on some pads and join the battle. On 12/19/12 9:29 AM, "John McCormack" wrote: Thank you again. Although ActionScript is not being developed for the FlashPlayer, is it possible that it may still be developed separately for use in AIR? I could deliver content through AIR instead of PDFs. My problem is that the FlashBuilder / Flash Professional workflow is such a seductive one, with that easy marriage of graphics and code, that I don't want to lose it. I have used C++ to produce graphical programs and the AS3 route is a godsend in comparison. One wonders "Is HMTL5 going to use any less CPU cycles than AS3, once it is doing similar work?" John On 18/12/2012 05:38, Alex Harui wrote: Re: [flexcoders] Re: Flex alternatives Things get lost in translation, but one goal of the parallel framew
