by Raju Bitter on January 15, 2010
Last year – in a discussion about what could be the next feature for a multi-runtime RIA platform like OpenLaszlo – the former OpenLaszlo director Jim Grandy came up with the idea of generating either JavaScript or OpenLaszlo’s XML based LZX source code out of exisiting SWF files. Today heise.de reported the launch of project Gordon by Munich based Tobias Schneider. Gordon is “An open source Flash™ runtime written in pure JavaScript”. You’ll find some demos of the current version of Gordon here, and the source code is available on githup. Technically Gordon translates the SWF tags into SVG through a JavaScript SVG renderer. The project wiki contains information on the supported browsers as well as the supported SWF tags (SWF 1.0).
Check this picture of one of the oldest Future Splash demos (Future Splash is the old name of Flash before the technology was bought by Macromedia) running on an iPhone through Gordon.
Gordon - rendering an old Future Splash demo on the iPhone
[click to continue…]
by Raju Bitter on October 21, 2009
After many months (even years) of waiting we finally have some information from Adobe on when the infamous FP-40 bug should be fixed. As an Adobe employee posted a few days ago: “I did a little investigation and confirmed this is fixed and will be available in the Flash Player 10.1 Beta to be released later this year.”
I’m tempted to say: “Good for the Flash community and the Linux world!”, but Adobe’s decision to not communicate any details around the issue for such a long time makes it very hard for me to say anything positive. Would it be too sarcastic to say that the Microsoft support seems to be pro-active compared to Adobe behavior in this case, but then – I’ve made my experiences with customer support and “open communication” when it comes to U.S. based technology companies.
Remember the Macromedia slogan Experience Matters?
Great experiences are hard to quantify, but we all know when we are having them. They are the memorable events that give shape to our lives. We believe that technology has reached a point in enabling the digital world to move beyond function towards great experiences – experiences that can complement and even compete with those of the physical world. Join us on this journey to explore what great experiences are, how they deliver better business results, and how to create them.
Wonder what the Adobe/Macromedia experience is like in 2009? Here’s quote from one of the frustrated customers commenting on the FP-40 issue:
I have posted an GetSatisfaction customer request for Adobe asking why is this bug not fixed. It has been ignored for 9 months now.
http://getsatisfaction.com/adobe/topics/why_doesnt_flash_support_international_characters_on_linu
With this kind of experience, I have just one more motivation to say: “The quicker Flash fades away, the better for all of us.” HTML5 and CSS3 will give us many of the features Flash offers right now. I’m not totally opposed to proprietary plug-ins, but I’m not up to more Adobe Flash FP-40 experience.
by Raju Bitter on October 16, 2009
Have you ever been dealing with detecting support for the new HTML5 and CSS3 features in browsers? Check out Modernizr, an open source JavaScript library which will probably make things a lot easier for you:
Modernizr is a small and simple JavaScript library that helps you take advantage of emerging web technologies (CSS3, HTML 5) while still maintaining a fine level of control over older browsers that may not yet support these new technologies.
Modernizr uses feature detection to test the current browser against upcoming features like rgba(), border-radius, CSS Transitions and many more. These are currently being implemented across browsers and with Modernizr you can start using them right now, with an easy way to control the fallbacks for browsers that don’t yet support them.
Using Modernizr within your CSS style sheets is very easy:
.multiplebgs div p {
/* properties for browsers that
support multiple backgrounds */
}
.no-multiplebgs div p {
/* optional fallback properties
for browsers that don't */
}
The approach Modernizr takes is not to assume what features the current browser supports based on the result of a user agent string analysis. Instead it uses feature detection for 20 innovative HTML5 and CSS3 features.
