O'Reilly News & Commentary

Developer Week in Review: Adobe raises the white flag on mobile Flash - Adobe immobilized mobile Flash, Eclipse joins the vanity language fad, and one man asks if brainteasers really find good program

By James Turner
November 10, 2011

Flash isn't dead, but Adobe is checking into hospice options. Eclipse adds another language to the list of ones almost but not exactly like Java. And how do you find good programmers? Probably not with brainteasers.

Developer Week in Review: Google Goes Yardsaling - Google consumes mass quantities of mobile, social media gone bad, and C++ learns new tricks

By James Turner
August 18, 2011

We learned that Google liked Motorola products so much they decided to buy the company, that social media has a dark side, and that C++ isn't ready to join Sanskrit in the dead languages section just yet.

JavaFX 2.0: Making RIA with Java - JavaFX 2.0 looks to make rich Java web applications easier

By James Turner
July 11, 2011

Jim Weaver, founder of JMentor, explains why JavaFX could become a viable contender in the Rich Internet Applications world.

Adobe: 64-bit Flash Player Later This Year

By Caitlyn Martin
June 9, 2011

The note from Mr. Offerman reads, in part: "I can confirm that Adobe will make 64-bit support in Flash Player "Square" available in a shipping release of Flash Player later this year."

One Year Later: Adobe Abandons 64-bit Linux Again

By Caitlyn Martin
June 7, 2011

Once again there are known security vulnerabilities in the now eight month old beta and no patches are available. In addition, the community forum page for discussing Flash Player "Square" has been deleted from the Adobe Labs website. If Adobe is continuing development on a 64-bit version of Flash Player they are not sharing any information with the public at this time. For the time being Adobe has effectively abandoned 64-bit Linux once again.

Checking in on HTML5 video - YouTube's Greg Schechter on HTML5's place in the video world.

By Jenn Webb
June 3, 2011

HTML5 video still needs work, but YouTube's Greg Schechter says it's heading in a good direction. In this interview, Schechter explains how HTML5 video introduces new architectural needs and new opportunities.

Can Flash and HTML5 get along? - Adobe's Duane Nickull on serving developers -- HTML5 and Flash alike -- through choice.

By James Turner
February 1, 2011

As HTML5 matures, the overlap between the new standard and Flash becomes a point of examination (or contention, depending on your perspective). In this interview, Adobe technical evangelist and Web 2.0 Expo speaker Duane Nickull says the real issue isn't which option is better, but rather how developers are best served.

Taking the designer-developer workflow to new heights

By Steven Peeters
January 13, 2011

As a developer, have you ever been in a situation where you had a design handed to you by the designer in a file format like Photoshop or Illustrator? What was the first thing you did then? Maybe you took...

If You Can Make It Here Part 3

By Jesse Freeman
January 3, 2011

There is a famous saying about New York, ”If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.” Not only is NYC incredibly expensive, it’s super competitive. Learn about what it takes to be a Flash developer in NYC, what you can earn and tips on how to become successful. This is the final part of this 3 part series.

Using Flex 4 Clients with the PHP Zend Framework Server

By Pete Mackie
January 3, 2011

The key topic of this article is how to take advantage of the extensive server-side functionality provided by the PHP Zend Framework Web application server on the server-side side of Flex 4 client/server RIA solutions. You'll learn that bootstrap loading of Zend Framework and using selected Zend Framework components are very easy to do.

If You Can Make It Here Part 2

By Jesse Freeman
December 31, 2010

There is a famous saying about New York, ”If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.” Not only is NYC incredibly expensive, it’s super competitive. Learn about what it takes to be a Flash developer in NYC, what you can earn and tips on how to become successful. This is part 2 of a 3 part series.

If You Can Make It Here Part 1

By Jesse Freeman
December 30, 2010

There is a famous saying about New York, ”If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.” Not only is NYC incredibly expensive, it’s super competitive. Learn about what it takes to be a Flash developer in NYC, what you can earn and tips on how to become successful.

2011 Conferences

By Jesse Freeman
December 28, 2010

Here are a list of conferences worth checking out in 2011.

Flex Development using Notepad++, the Flex SDK, and Ant...All Completely Free!

By Charles Bihis
December 15, 2010

"Flex is a highly productive, free, open source frameworkfor building expressive web applications." This is taken directly from the Flex product page on Adobe.com (emphasis mine). However, after talking to many web developers over the years, I've come to find...

AIR For Android On Tablets

By Jesse Freeman
December 14, 2010

This was a big year for Flash on Mobile devices. Not only has Flash finally made its way onto Android, Android itself is taking over the mobile space in a big way. It is clear that Adobe has a vested...

CodeBummer Goes Chrome

By Jesse Freeman
December 8, 2010

Advanced Flash Tactics or AFTs are techniques that come from deep within the Flash Art Of War, the oldest Flash military treatise in the world. In this AFT I will go over - Packaging Flash Apps for Google Chrome....

Flash Player 10.2 Beta has landed at Adobe Labs

By Rich Tretola
December 1, 2010

Quoted from Adobe Labs: "We’re happy to announce a beta release of Flash Player 10.2 for Windows, Mac, and Linux is now available for download on Adobe Labs. Flash Player 10.2 beta introduces a number of enhancements we’re excited to...

WP7 UX Introduction: Part 6

By Jesse Freeman
November 24, 2010

In this series we will explore the phone, it's UX and some early experiments I have done on the phone.

Optimize Flash Content and Improving Usability on Mobile Devices - Part #2

By Elad Elrom
November 23, 2010

In this 3-part series for InsideRIA I will be covering best practices, tips, tricks, and other useful information to help you create optimized Flash applications for mobile devices. In this part I will cover the following subtitles: Architecting Manipulating...

WP7 UX Introduction: Part 5

By Jesse Freeman
November 22, 2010

In this series we will explore the phone, it's UX and some early experiments I have done on the phone.

Create a Circular Sound Analyzer

By Ben Smith
November 19, 2010

Traditional equalizers are arranged in columns known as bands. Each column has a height representing a sound’s amplitude at specific frequency. It is these amplitudes that give the traditional equalizer its distinct look. However, traditional is boring. Who says equalizers...

WP7 UX Introduction: Part 4

By Jesse Freeman
November 17, 2010

In this series we will explore the phone, it's UX and some early experiments I have done on the phone.

WP7 UX Introduction: Part 3

By Jesse Freeman
November 15, 2010

In this series we will explore the phone, it's UX and some early experiments I have done on the phone.

Flex Quick Tip: OpaqueBackground

By Amy Blankenship
November 14, 2010

I developed in Flash before I started developing in Flex, but by now I have spent way more time in the Flex environment than with Flash by itself. Because of this, I tend to turn first to Flex features...

A perfect dystopian storm: Interview with "Flash Mob Gone Wrong" speaker

By Brady Forrest
November 12, 2010

At Ignite London 2, Tom Scott told the story of a "Flash Mob Gone Wrong." It's struck a nerve and is gathering a lot of momentum on Reddit, MetaFilter and Twitter. Scott explains why and how he created the presentation in the following short interview.

WP7 UX Introduction: Part 2

By Jesse Freeman
November 10, 2010

In this series we will explore the phone, it's UX and some early experiments I have done on the phone.

Optimize Flash Content and Improving Usability on Mobile Devices - Part #1

By Elad Elrom
November 8, 2010

In this 3-part series for InsideRIA I will be covering best practices, tips, tricks, and other useful information to help you create optimized Flash applications for mobile devices. In this part I will cover the following subtitles: Flash Player...

WP7 UX Introduction: Part 1

By Jesse Freeman
November 8, 2010

In this series we will explore the phone, it's UX and some early experiments I have done on the phone.

AdobeMax: Deep Dive into Flash Player Rendering

By Adam Parrish
October 26, 2010

Introduction For those unable to attend, my first session is the Deep Dive into Flash Player Rendering. This seems to be an extremely misunderstood topic and likely will be a great thing to have a deeper understanding in. This is...

Flash Builder Burrito, Flex Hero SDK, Flash Catalyst Panini Now Available

By Rich Tretola
October 25, 2010

Well, the wait is over. If you head on over to Adobe Labs, you can now download public previews of Flash Builder "Burrito", Flex Hero SDK, and Flash Catalyst Panini. Here is some additional info on these new tools: Key...

QOW: Are you building mobile applications?

By Rich Tretola
October 12, 2010

Are you building mobile applications? HTML or Flash for browser based mobile apps, AIR on Android, Objective C, Java, JavaScript for installable mobile applications? What are you building? What technology are you using? Please let us know what challenges you...

The Top 5 Java & Android Gotchas for Flash Devs

By Jesse Freeman
October 4, 2010

After working with Android for the past 2 months I put together this list of things that I keep forgetting to do or were incredibly frustrating to figure out. For the most part, developing for Android is great but even...

Android App Development with Adobe's AIR 2.5

By Matthew David
October 4, 2010

Today, there are 5 Billion people around the world using mobile phones. It is a staggering figure. No other technology is advancing at the rapid speed the mobile industry is experiencing. As a frame of reference, there are only 1.7...

Interview With Chuck Freedman

By Jesse Freeman
September 29, 2010

Chuck Freedman is the chief channel evangelist at litl, creating an ecosystem for Flash content as channels across litl devices throughout the digital home. Managing his 3rd Flash based platform, Chuck has also launched Flash/Flex SDKs for Yahoo! Maps...

Better Flex and AS3 unit tests with Behavioral Mocking

By Ian McLean
September 24, 2010

For some, mocking is just a daily reality that stems from an obsession with development and the fact that you bring your ThunderCats lunch pail to the office each day (and may I add that I support you fully). Despite...

FlxFrogger on Litl in 15 mins

By Jesse Freeman
September 24, 2010

Advanced Flash Tactics or AFTs are techniques that come from deep within the Flash Art Of War, the oldest Flash military treatise in the world. In this AFT I will go over - FlxFrogger on Litl in 15 mins....

RIAUnleashed - a two day Flash conference in Boston

By Elad Elrom
September 24, 2010

I want to talk about an awesome event coming up November 11, 2010 called RIA Unleashed. I attended this event for the first time last year and it was awesome! They had the top speakers in the industry, great topics...

Adding deeplinking and analytics to your Flex app is easier than you think

By Dan Florio
September 17, 2010

Deeplinking: the ability to control the initial view of your application via the URL Analytics: collecting usage date regarding how users interact with your application. Two common misconceptions about Flash and Flex applications is that deeplinking and collecting analytics data...

Flash Player Square (64 bit support)

By Rich Tretola
September 16, 2010

A new version of the Flash Player called Flash Player Square is now available as a public beta. The key new capabilities in the Flash Player "Square" preview are: 64-bit support — Native support for 64-bit operating systems and 64-bit...

Introducing AntPile

By Jesse Freeman
September 13, 2010

AntPile is an AS 3 project template complete with ANT build script and unit testing scaffolding. It also supports automating Air for Android APK compiling and deploying to phones.

Apple Changes Stance on 3rd Party Development Tools

By Andrew Trice
September 9, 2010

In a recent press release, it appears that Apple has changed their stance on 3rd party development tools on iOS devices. Does this mean that the Flash CS5 exporter can be used again?

Pragmatic Design Patterns: Composition Over Inheritance

By Amy Blankenship
September 2, 2010

Many developers have the idea that design patterns are "nice to haves," something that you can add after the fact, if you have time to waste making your code academically appealing for no added benefit. At some level, I...

Gnash 0.8.8: A Huge Improvement Over Previous Versions

By Caitlyn Martin
August 27, 2010

Early this week Gnash 0.8.8 was released. Despite the small increment in version number, which would make this seem like a minor maintenance release, the difference between version 0.8.8 and the earlier 0.8.7 is like night and day.

Early Flex 4.5 SDK released on Adobe Open Source

By RJ Owen
August 27, 2010

Adobe has posted a build of the Flex 4.5 SDK, code named "Hero", on their open-source site. This build does not contain features that rely on future versions of the Flash Player or AIR runtime, which is to say there's no AIR for Android goodness in here. Still, the new build adds the much-anticipated Spark DataGrid, a few other Spark components, and a number of bug fixes.

FITC Day 3 - Afternoon: Ralph Hauwert (take 2), Theo Watson and Emily Gobeille, Brendan Dawes and Yugo Nakamura

By RJ Owen
August 20, 2010

The final afternoon of FITC was packed full of inspirational speakers. I started the afternoon with an encore session by Ralph Hauwert, followed by what was probably the most inspirational session of all by Theo Watson and Emily Gobeille on their work in augmented reality through Interactive Installations. After that I learned about the future of digital interation design with Brendan Dawes and brought the conference to a close with renown creator Yugo Nakamura. Looking back on the past three days, I really can't say enough good things about FITC SF. This was one of the best conferences I've ever been to. I think adding the inspirational design element and the amazing host of speakers at this conference was a huge part of what made the experience so great. Each and every speaker I saw was both amazingly knowledgable, talented, humble and personable. The sessions were informative and fun. I'll definitely be back.

FITC Day 3 - Morning: Kristin Henry, Grant Skinner and Jeremy Thorpe

By RJ Owen
August 20, 2010

Flash In The Can: San Francisco went out with a bang today. On the final morning, I heard Kristen Henry talk about the Art and Science of Particles, Grant Skinner talk about building experiments in your spare time (and where to find it), and Jeremy Thorpe talk about The HyperCard Legacy (aka "punk programming.")

FITC Day 2 - Afternoon / Evening: Jared Ficklin, Eric Natzke and Robert Hodgin

By RJ Owen
August 19, 2010

I spent the afternoon of day 2 among a talented music visualization artist (Jared) and two of the masters of computer generated art (Eric and Robert.) Jared showed us how music can be visualized in the real, physical analog world with Eric and Robert showed different approaches to digital art. The conference day ended with another massive crowd game by Colin Moock and the official FITC party.

FITC 2 - Morning: Ralph Hauwert, Jim Corbett and Joa Ebert

By RJ Owen
August 18, 2010

After spending most of day one on design related topics, I was excited to hit some hard-core code on day 2. This morning I heard Ralph Hauwert talk about turning your passion into your job (and his is graphics in Flash), Jim Corbett talk about the internals of Flash Player 10.1 for Mobile, and Joa Ebert discuss The Apparat - his new tool set for Flash compression and engineering.

Introducing tinytlf

By RJ Owen
August 18, 2010

Paul Taylor aka Guy In The Chair has a new blog post up TODAY introducing his new tinytlf framework for displaying Text in Flex. tinytlf improves on the existing TLF framework by allowing you to use TLF-style text encoding similar to TextFlows using CSS and text decoration that's more consistent with HTML. Paul's library allows you to map specific HTML symbols to different text styles and makes it all selectable over multiple columns, making tinytlf an incredibly useful library for rendering text.

FITC Day 1, Afternoon: Adobe Keynote, Robotlegs, Kyle Cooper on Creative Community, and Multi-User Pong with Colin Moock

By RJ Owen
August 18, 2010

The first morning of FITC passed like an inspirational whirlwind, but the afternoon was no less intense. In this entry I discuss the Adobe Keynote, which discussed where Flash has been and Flash and AIR's future on mobile. Next I talk about Robotlegs with Joel Hooks, learning about Creative Community from the amazing film titles producer Kyle Cooper and finally playing Megapong with Colin Moock and 20 other people.

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