FLASH: Any progress on these?

[Wayne Townsend]

John, thx for replying...



>Welcome, and you're right -- we don't have editable text within the Flash

>movie at runtime itself, and so the entry of a username or other text

>information needs to be done in the host, whether in HTML/JavaScript,

>Director, or such.

>

>In Flash we can often send menu-driven choices to the server through use of

>branching sequences and parameters passed via URLs, and it's conceivable to

>have JavaScript catch a keystroke and tell the SWF to display a certain

>letter, but in general, editable text usually requires some type of

>scripting processing, implying a larger host application than Flash's

>small, fast player.


Very, very inadequate. I'm in awe of the folks that have attempted this.

But these programming techniques fall down when things get a bit

complicated.  The above doesn't qualify as more than a work-around.


>These would be difficult, politically... many people here on FLASHER-L

>delight in the small player size for pure Flash content.


Just how much overhead would just a field engine, like say, the one from

SuperTalk, take?


Adding *just this* capability puts Flash in the arena of taking care of

most of the needs of most webmasters.


It's worth the 100k additional download w/ the plug-n, and besides, who

cares?  Flash is distributed widely now upon disks and within browser

downloads.  You get it once, and use it thereafter, so the download is not

large and not important because the market has decided that we're all going

to use Flash.  Just my personal opinion, but MM should start to be a little

more secure in what they have accomplished with Flash.  The audience "gets

it".  That's for sure.


I'll never do another HTML/Gif/Jpeg - no Flash website again.


We simply must have the fields.  Not so much as to compete w/ Director, but

just enough to get by with forms. That's all we need for now.  I can wait

until bandwidth increases to beg for the RealPlayer & QuickTime load

movies.  But, then again, why should we?  The meg download of Shockwave

doesn't seem to have slowed it down so much.  A few hundred K flash

download is nothing compared to what it gives the audience.


We're on a roll with Flash now.  Let's keep it going, pls.  By moving on to

the next logical step.  All the new-wave websites need forms for the

interactivity.  Anybody disagree?


I think it would be an exceptional idea to include the SuperCard/SuperTalk

developers in the Flash market.  Then, we would have the creative designers

elbow-to-elbow with some really great logical programmers.  The wheels at

MM need to talk to the current owners of SC.  (www.IncWell.com).  Keith

Shaw, Pres.




>Instead of using Flash as the host for various media and interactivity

>functions, suppose Flash was a guest in an interactive, multi-media host?


Because Flash works well as the host - fast!   I'd rather use Flash as the

host than anything else, for some very good programming reasons.  It's just

logical.  And since MM owns the most important web technology to come along

so far in history, wouldn't you rather be the front-end rather than just

another player?  Of course, it's political though.  MS wan't to be in that

position. Can't blame them, who doesn't want to be the Web OS?  A Web OS is

nothing more than the first guy you talk to when visiting a site.


Point is, Flash can do it, I'm doing it now with Flash.  Flash is my

Website's GUI/OS.  You could make things easir for developers though, by

incorporating the best technology into Flash.  Or would you rather Flash be

an "also ran"?


>(SuperTalk is certainly a valid English-like scripting language. A strict

>port may be difficult, though, because it is card-based rather than

>time-based, and Flash is intrinsically time-based. Lingo is likely a closer

>match to the demands of such a task, and offers the performance benefits of

>a compiled language.)


Lingo is NO SuperTalk.  In fact, some would argue that the basis of Lingo

was given it's genisis in SuperTalk.  The scripting looks awefully similar.

;)  And SuperTalk was there years earlier.  It's simply the best.  Let's

not forget that Jon Gay, the father of Flash, was at Silicon Beach

(SuperTalk) back in the mid 80's.  I'd like to know what Jon thinks about

this, if he cares to chime in.


>it is card-based rather than time-based


But you could use the field handling portions, and some other things.




>>Where is the Mac version of Severside Generator?


>Few enterprise servers are Mac-based, although Macs are certainly *heavily*

>represented in the design community. That's why the design tools are on

>Macintosh, and the server tools are on IIS/NT, Apache/Solaris, and

>NES3.5/Solaris. (The two Solaris/Sparc servers went into public beta this

>week... you can get the news from the Macromedia front page.)


Old news.  Not the case today.  Macs run Unix Apache, (see

http://www.tenon.com) the most popular server software worldwide, and do a

good job of it.  The iMac as a server is a boom.  For $1300 & $500 for Unix

Apache, a server that will run toe-to-toe with systems costing *many* times

as much.  This is what server fans have been waiting for - a sub $2K G3

server.  You guys need to deal with this situation.


I'm using one now and will buy more.  BTW, the $2K iMac server performs

better than servers that cost me $6k.


>I appreciate the wishlist items, Wayne... would it be possible for you to

>

forward them into the wish-flashmacromedia [dot] com account?

Well, not now really.  I'm trying to build support for what developers

need.  The Flash developer's audience reads this list, not

wish-flashmacromedia [dot] com

.  I'm interested in if developers agree that we

want this.  Developers drive the road, wouldn't you agree?


Thx John,


/w

waynettopher [dot] net

Wayne Townsend

WebStaffing.Net, Dallas, TX. USA

waynetTopher [dot] Net (mailto:waynetTopher [dot] Net)

wayneWebStaffing [dot] Net (mailto:wayneWebStaffing [dot] Net)

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