Re: [swfmill] future of swfmill

2006-06-27 Thread Jon Molesa
Man, I missed a lot today.

On Tue, 27 Jun 2006, daniel fischer wrote:

>
> hey all,
>
> most of you are probably using swfmill happily to produce asset
> libraries. Some even to do more complex stuff. Some have bugs pending
> in swfmill's tracker that i haven't had the time to investigate or fix.
> You might've noticed that i haven't been too busy with swfmill since
> last summer. I think it's time to let you know about my plans for
> swfmill:
>
> * i've started a rewrite of the core SWF-read/write functionality of
> swfmill- in haXe/neko. the project is (currently) called "hxswf".

I've been meaning to take a good long look at haxe.

>
> * except for writing the core, roughly the following must be done to
> make the haxe-based rewrite as featureful as swfmill 0.2:
>
>* integration of libxml/libxslt into neko
>* xml (SAX-based) read/write functionality for the core classes
>* adding image and font reading/conversion
>* putting it all together, and tidbits here and there (for swf and
> svg import, if nothing else).
>
>   all of these are substantial tasks - and i currently have no
> intention of doing them, unless someone steps forward and offers
> funding, because i have very little personal interest in the (otherwise
> widely-used) asset-generation functionality.

You know...I'd love to bang on the code for a while but I'm intimidated. 
:)

> * work on swfmill-0.2.x will continue-- from my side with "occasional"
> fixes, and probably/hopefully from steve's side, too.  anyone else is
> invited, of course. so please do not worry that this is in some way
> putting an end to swfmill as you know it- if nothing else, if the
> current version works well for you, there is no reason it should stop
> doing so in the future. it just means that my activity with swfmill-0.2
> will stay as low as it has been during the last half year or so - while
> i focus on the core rewrite, xinf, and other projects.
>
> best,
> -dan

Best wishes Dan and thanks for the info.  We appreciate it and love 
swfmill.

>
>
>

Jon Molesa
Owner - Consoltec
828-994-2067
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.consoltec.net

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Re: [swfmill] future of swfmill

2006-06-27 Thread erixtekila
> Maybe I'm just missing something because I haven't tried any of the
> FP8 features yet, but what else would have to be supported?
Font metrics for the new text renderrer engine 5flashtype or something).

>  Frankly,
> it's been a long time since I ran into any limitations with swfmill,
> apart from the experimental SVG import.
Same here.

Best regards.
---
erixtekila
http://blog.v-i-a.net/


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Re: [swfmill] future of swfmill

2006-06-27 Thread daniel fischer
"Mark Winterhalder" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (on Tue, 27 Jun 2006 18:55:04 +0200):

  > Don't know about the name, though...

eh, hxswf is just the swf-readwrite-library. if the haxe effort gets to have 
swfmill-like functionality, it will be swfmill-0.3 (see below).

  > So, is swfmill called "final" now? :)

there's no such thing as "final" :)
seeing that swfmill performs fine in most cases, it's probably time to remove 
the "alpha" disclaimer (and replace it with the usual 
we'll-shoot-yer-foot-dont-complain one). so i'd call the 0.2.x branch "stable"- 
implying maybe that your swfml-ll and -simple files will keep working 
throughout the branch. should a haxe-based swfmill come along, it will likely 
be swfmill-0.3 (an odd number denoting a development/unstable version)-- and 
0.2.x will stay around until 0.3 goes 0.4 (only when it matches or supercedes 
0.2's functionality).

If anyone should be confused by this versioning scheme:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_kernel#Version_numbering


  > will buy Dan a beer
sweet.

-dan

-- 
http://0xDF.com/
http://iterative.org/

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Re: [swfmill] future of swfmill

2006-06-27 Thread daniel fischer
"Steve Webster" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (on Tue, 27 Jun 2006 17:51:57 +0100):

  > > just for some internals, i decided to use a neko-C helper library to do 
the bitstream reading/writing- the classes for SWF Tags are haXe, though.
  > 
  > That probably makes sense. Is haXe even low-level enough to allow bit
  > manipulation et al?

well, at least neko is :). it would probably work in pure haxe- but i would 
have to write IEEE floats and doubles by hand or something, and haxe has 
somewhat of a "quirk" with integers (they're all signed 31bit). 

i thought about doing a proper ANSI-C "libswf", but decided against it (at 
least for now), for intuitive reasons :)


  > I think once filter support is done (I've got a bug at
  > the moment where it's writing too many / not enough bytes and I need
  > to spend some time figuring out why) then we can do a proper release.

Cool. And good luck (or whatever a writer needs) for your book.

-dan


-- 
http://0xDF.com/
http://iterative.org/

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Re: [swfmill] future of swfmill

2006-06-27 Thread Mark Winterhalder
On 6/27/06, daniel fischer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> "Steve Webster" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (on Tue, 27 Jun 2006 17:32:46 +0100):
>
>   > >  * i've started a rewrite of the core SWF-read/write functionality of
>   > > swfmill- in haXe/neko. the project is (currently) called "hxswf".
>   >
>   > Interesting. I saw you mentioned this on the xinf list. Is this code
>   > available somewhere.
>
> not yet, i'll publish on this list once it does something :)
>
> just for some internals, i decided to use a neko-C helper library to do the 
> bitstream reading/writing- the classes for SWF Tags are haXe, though.
>
>
> let me know when you consider f8 support "done enough"-- maybe even if it's 
> not complete we should do a proper release one of these days-- there's so 
> many fixes and enhancements in the pre's already :)

Maybe I'm just missing something because I haven't tried any of the
FP8 features yet, but what else would have to be supported? Frankly,
it's been a long time since I ran into any limitations with swfmill,
apart from the experimental SVG import.

It's a great tool already, and as long as you two keep fixing the
occasional bug, even if it takes a bit until you get to it, there's
really nothing else I could ask for.

In the long run, a haXe-based swfmill-like tool will be much more
valuable, IMHO, because haXe is much more accessible for the users
(read: me). Don't know about the name, though...

So, is swfmill called "final" now? :)

Thanks!

Mark,
will buy Dan a beer

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Re: [swfmill] future of swfmill

2006-06-27 Thread Steve Webster
On 6/27/06, daniel fischer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> "Steve Webster" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (on Tue, 27 Jun 2006 17:32:46 +0100):
>
>   > >  * i've started a rewrite of the core SWF-read/write functionality of
>   > > swfmill- in haXe/neko. the project is (currently) called "hxswf".
>   >
>   > Interesting. I saw you mentioned this on the xinf list. Is this code
>   > available somewhere.
>
> not yet, i'll publish on this list once it does something :)

Cool!

> just for some internals, i decided to use a neko-C helper library to do the 
> bitstream reading/writing- the classes for SWF Tags are haXe, though.

That probably makes sense. Is haXe even low-level enough to allow bit
manipulation et al?

> let me know when you consider f8 support "done enough"-- maybe even if it's 
> not complete we should do a proper release one of these days-- there's so 
> many fixes and enhancements in the pre's already :)

Yeah, will do. I think once filter support is done (I've got a bug at
the moment where it's writing too many / not enough bytes and I need
to spend some time figuring out why) then we can do a proper release.

Steve

-- 
Steve Webster
http://dynamicflash.com

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Re: [swfmill] future of swfmill

2006-06-27 Thread daniel fischer
"Steve Webster" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (on Tue, 27 Jun 2006 17:32:46 +0100):

  > >  * i've started a rewrite of the core SWF-read/write functionality of
  > > swfmill- in haXe/neko. the project is (currently) called "hxswf".
  > 
  > Interesting. I saw you mentioned this on the xinf list. Is this code
  > available somewhere.

not yet, i'll publish on this list once it does something :)

just for some internals, i decided to use a neko-C helper library to do the 
bitstream reading/writing- the classes for SWF Tags are haXe, though.


let me know when you consider f8 support "done enough"-- maybe even if it's not 
complete we should do a proper release one of these days-- there's so many 
fixes and enhancements in the pre's already :)

-dan

-- 
http://0xDF.com/
http://iterative.org/

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Re: [swfmill] future of swfmill

2006-06-27 Thread Steve Webster
Hi Dan, all,

Replies inline:

> most of you are probably using swfmill happily to produce asset
> libraries. Some even to do more complex stuff. Some have bugs pending
> in swfmill's tracker that i haven't had the time to investigate or fix.
> You might've noticed that i haven't been too busy with swfmill since
> last summer. I think it's time to let you know about my plans for
> swfmill:
>
>  * i've started a rewrite of the core SWF-read/write functionality of
> swfmill- in haXe/neko. the project is (currently) called "hxswf".

Interesting. I saw you mentioned this on the xinf list. Is this code
available somewhere. It might be the excuse I didn't really want to
start looking at haXe (having previously written it off as YAPL).

>  * except for writing the core, roughly the following must be done to
> make the haxe-based rewrite as featureful as swfmill 0.2:
>
> * integration of libxml/libxslt into neko
> * xml (SAX-based) read/write functionality for the core classes
> * adding image and font reading/conversion
> * putting it all together, and tidbits here and there (for swf and
> svg import, if nothing else).
>
>all of these are substantial tasks - and i currently have no
> intention of doing them, unless someone steps forward and offers
> funding, because i have very little personal interest in the (otherwise
> widely-used) asset-generation functionality.

Fair enough - they are substantial tasks.

>  * work on swfmill-0.2.x will continue-- from my side with "occasional"
> fixes, and probably/hopefully from steve's side, too.  anyone else is
> invited, of course. so please do not worry that this is in some way
> putting an end to swfmill as you know it- if nothing else, if the
> current version works well for you, there is no reason it should stop
> doing so in the future. it just means that my activity with swfmill-0.2
> will stay as low as it has been during the last half year or so - while
> i focus on the core rewrite, xinf, and other projects.

This was the bit I really wanted to respond to. I'll keep working on
swfmill 0.2.x so long as I have the time and people are finding it
useful. I don't know whether we'll ever get to the stage of AVM2
support, but if enough people are interested then it might happen.

I should qualify my statement above by saying that in I'm in the
middle of another book project at the moment, and I've probably got
another one lined up after that one's finished. With a full-time job
and the occasional freelance project, I don't have a great deal of
free time to spend on swfmill at the moment. I intend to get Flash 8
filter support wrapped up, but after that I'll only provide occasional
fixes when time/desire permits. However, if a particular bug fix or
feature is a priority for you and/or your company, and you're willing
to fund development time, then I'm available.

Cheers,

Steve

-- 
Steve Webster
http://dynamicflash.com

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