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
That reminds me of the Henry Minky’s demo rendering OpenLaszlo’s XML into SVG (instead of Flash or JavaScript code). The question is, how much of the advanced interactivity the SWF format offers can be reproduced using SVG? An interesting post in the Open Web Advocacy Group titled “A Rant about SVG” discusses the various technical difficulties around using SVG and JavaScript in modern browsers.
Without being an expert on the SVG subject I have the feeling that there are still a few shortcomings if you plan to build full applications using SVG – if you plan to have the apps running in the various versions of IE in the market. But Gordon is definitely an interesting project, very much welcomed by anyone interested in an more open standards way of building Flash-like apps for the web.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 0 comments… add one now }