Maybe it’s just me. Maybe I’m too used to things working out-of-the-box when it comes to applications. Maybe it’s because I’m on a Mac (at home). Maybe I’m a bit slow (a distinct possibility).
Today I tried to get a combination of Eclipse and FDT working, after two very clever ex-colleagues of mine highly recommended it as a better alternative to Flex Builder. After going for the PHP flavour of Eclipse on recommendation, I installed FDT through the Software Updates option within Eclipse. On restart I was prompted with memory warnings; that I needed to assign more memory to Eclipse. I thought this was a bit strange, as I was used to doing this years ago on Mac OS9 but hadn’t come across it so far on OS X. Anyways, I managed to sort this issue but then compiling my Hello World test required the Flex SDK being targeted. No biggie, but needed to tackle workarounds involving playerglobal.swc on the Mac. Eventually I published my swf from ActionScript.
Decided to try and publish some MXML. Learned that FDT seemingly doesn’t support it yet but that it’s coming soon. So, right now I’m in this kinda vague no mans land where I think I know I should kinda be checking out FDT, but I don’t appreciate why it’s so good and the workflow process that might be entailed with using it (especially if you’re also having to deal with MXML).
I’ll hopefully update this again once I’ve made further inroads into the process, but after day one checking it out I’m not sold yet. Is it better than working in Flex Builder 3 and/or Flash?
P.S. Hello Adam and Joe! Not THE Adam and Joe, although they are pretty funny themselves.
Apple have updated Safari to version 3.1 to include support for a lot of cutting-edge technology (including client-side database storage), along with adding a native developer dropdown (enabled within the preferences section). With Firefox 3, Opera 9.5 coming soon and, erm, IE8, it’s looking like the browser market is about to make web developer’s lives a lot more interesting soon.
By “interesting” I of course mean more difficult!
P.S. Visit this page in Safari 3.1 to see some funky CSS animation. Coo!
The new SWFObject is out. There are two main ways to embed Flash content on a page, with Option 2 sounding like the best fit for the rules/regulations we have to adhere to for work (progressive enhancement, no click-to-activate rubbish in IE, you HAVE to have JS to view the Flash, etc). Option 2 follows a similar method to SWFObject 1.5 as well.
Will have to look into the documentation in detail and try out some examples on a range of browsers if I have the time…
Adobe have posted an article informing those in the Flash community that there’s a security update coming next month, and advised developers to subscribe to their security notification service.
Most of it seems to affect socket behaviour, which I unfortuately haven’t had much experience with so far (except for pottering around with SmartFoxServer at home and multiplayer tile-based game mockups), but looks like some older swfs (Flash 7 and below) played out in the new player may experience issues.
It seems Flash isn’t coming to the iPhone or the iPod Touch. Boo Steve Jobs.