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Adobe Flash Platform

Tour de Flex updated

Tour de Flex is an AIR application which aims at :

¬ Providing non-Flex developers with an overview of what is possible in Flex in a “look and see” environment
¬ Providing Flex developers with an illustrated reference tool
¬ Providing commercial and non-commercial Flex developers with a place to showcase their work.

This update brings into relief the new possibilities that AIR 2.o and Flex 4.o may offer.

Tour de Flex includes over 200 running samples, each with source code, links to documentation, and other details. The data vizualisation section is graphically very interesting. If you don’t know 3rd parties like KapIT Lab, IBM Ilog Elixir, Axiis and Mindset Designs, it a good occasion to discover their data visualization projects and many other types of UI components. After that you could read the ‘28 Rich Data Visualization Tools‘ article written by Theresa Neil, on 10th december 2oo9 on InsideRIA web site and explore the tremendous Visual complexity web site (initiated by Manuel Lima).

Here below as example is the Webdge Stack Graph from Axiis :

Moreover I wanted to bring into relief the way Adobe updates this application. The release note is often a text file that you have to open in order to know what have been added, modified, removed and corrected from the previous version of the application you (re-)install. With Tour de Flex I have the feeling that Adobe is innovating the way applications are updated. According to the new paradigm of quality (due to Agile methodology, QA acceptance, Test Development Driven, and so on), this approach is the final point in the application (software, web site) development process. The dynamic update release notes is generated from a database, illustrating the complete mastering of the mentioned process. Well done!

At least, open the about panel and watch the visual effect. That is just symbolic, not so spectacular but symbolic of the importance brought to details. Due to HD Interactive, the Adobe solution partner ?

For more information, have a look at the Tour de Flex’s blog.

BrowserLab updated

On 14th january 2o1o, Adobe annoucend the 4th preview version of its web tool for designer, BrowserLab. BrowserLab provides web designers exact renderings of their web pages in multiple browsers and operating systems, on demand. The new features are :

¬ Local save screenshots generated by BrowserLab in either 1-Up or 2-Up views
¬ Additional browser support (Google Chrome especially)
¬ Move and Pane
¬ Rulers and Guides
¬ Onion Skin Registration
¬ Screenshot Delay

If you are a regular Dreamweaver user, you may take advantage of the Dreamweaver extensions (requires to install Extension Manager CS4 2.0). This extension lets you preview local web content from within Dreamweaver, without requiring you to post it to a publicly-accessible server first. The extension gives you the option of previewing files from your local Dreamweaver site, or from a remote or testing server. Read the official documentation about this subject.

For more information about BrowserLab, watch the introductive video on AdobeTV done by Adobe Product Manager, Scott Fegette and go trough the BrowserLab online help.

ASDocr

Grant Skinner shares its new tool to generate ASDoc, ASDocr – a simple graphical interface to ASDoc build on the new nativeProcess APIs in AIR 2.o. I haven’t tested yet but this approach is very interesting because to generate ASDoc is not a very funny task…

HYPE framework

On 17th january, Branden Hall and Joshua Davis have updated the HYPE framework, a collaborative visual framework developed in AS3 with FDT. This framework requires that you use Flash CS4 and that you upload the MXP file with the Adobe Extension Manager. I haven’t tested it yet, but it’s planed for a coming post. Stay tuned !

And more!

C++ and Low Level Virtual Machin Project

The last few days I noticed that some people are regularly interested by the C++ POCO library. So I decided to organize and add pages on this blog concerning C++ libraries, frameworks and projects.
Moreover I take advantage of this, to communicate about a project which take some importance at this time: Low Level Virtual Machin Project. LLVM is a compiler infrastructure, written in C++, which is designed for compile-time, link-time, run-time, and “idle-time” optimization of programs written in arbitrary programming languages. Moreover Google refreshed our mind on its blog about the 3rd Annual LLVM Developers’ Meeting which occured on 2nd October 2oo9 in Cupertino, CA, United States. I’m not enough expert in this domain to comment whether LLVM is revolutionary or not but I have the feeling that we have to stay in touch about LLVM actuality.

Nevertheless I recommend you to read the following InsideRIA articles to understand the impact of LLVM on Adobe project, especially to compile Flash actionscript project to native iPhone project:

¬ Flash to iPhone, by Veronique Brossier, on 16th October 2oo9,
¬ Getting Started With Adobe Alchemy, by Damon Edwards, on 15th April 2oo9.

and from the 3rd Annual LLVM Developers’ Meeting :

¬ Optimizing ActionScript Bytecode using LLVM, by Scott Petersen, on February 2oo9

C# libraries, frameworks and projects

At least I worked also on the C# libraries, frameworks and projects especially because I think that Silverlight and WPF is becoming a very tough competitor to the Flash Player and the AIR player. Moreover I’m going to give more importance to Microsoft technologies on this blog. I think 2o1o will the Microsoft’s year… Let’s see!

Have a good night!

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