Macromedia Flash

Macromedia Flash, or simply Flash both refer to both a multimedia authoring program and the Macromedia Flash Player, written and distributed by Macromedia, that utilizes vector and bitmap graphics, sound and program code and bidirectional streaming video and audio (upstreaming only available when used in conjunction with Macromedia Flash Communication Server). Strictly speaking, Macromedia Flash is the authoring environment and Flash Player is the virtual machine application used to run the Flash files, but in colloquial language these have become mixed: "Flash" can mean either the authoring environment, the player or the application files.

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Macromedia Flash MX 2004

The Flash files, which usually have an SWF file extension, may appear in a web page for viewing in a web browser, or standalone Flash players may "play" them. Flash files occur most often in animations on web pages and rich-media web sites, and more recently Rich Internet Applications. They are also widely used in web advertisements.

In recent versions, Macromedia has expanded Flash beyond the simple animations, into a complete application development tool, mainly to create Rich Internet Applications. Flash will become an Adobe product if the merger between Adobe and Macromedia is approved.

Contents
1 Programming Language

1.1 Compilers

2 Pros and cons

2.1 Advantages
2.2 Disadvantages

3 Security
4 Competition
5 Influence
6 File types Used
7 Product history
8 Future developments
9 See also
10 External links

Programming Language

Flash MX 2004 uses ActionScript 2.0, which is ECMAScript 4 compliant, which means that it looks more like Java. It can now be considered a full-fledged object-oriented programming language, including its free-form coding style, events, interfaces and inheritance. Many object-oriented features are those of the compiler; it is still a scripting programming language with no run-time strong types or many other object-oriented programming features.

Compilers

One can compile ActionScript 2.0 with the built-in compiler in the Flash IDE or with Motion Twin ActionScript2 Compiler (MTASC). See External links.

Pros and cons

Advantages

The Macromedia Flash file format has several features that make it a popular option for delivering advertising and for certain types of websites, such as those which require a very sophisticated or special user interface unattainable with HTML or Javascript.

Disadvantages

Flash also has some disadvantages:

Internet .swf files may not be saved from the browser program. However, a copy is loaded into the browser's temporary internet files folder from where it can be retrieved, although few Web Browsers allow you to save Flash content like Maxthon(formerly MyIE2)*[4] Flash content is not tied to the HTML framework, so it does not use browser settings for font size, color, etc; Text may appear tiny for vision-impaired people or those with high resolution screens. Users can still zoom in the Flash movie if the developer hasn't disabled this feature.

Flash MX 2004, the latest release, addresses several of the disadvantages. See this discussion of Flash and usability.

Security

Flash Player uses a sandbox security model, which means that Flash applications running in a browser have very strict and limited resources available to them. The applications cannot, for example, read files from the hard disk (except the cookie-like data they themselves have written). They can only communicate with the domain they originated from, unless explicitly allowed by another domain.

Flash Player is, as any application that handles files received from the Internet, susceptible to attacks. Specially crafted files could cause the application to malfunction, potentially allowing execution of malevolent code. There have never been any actual problems, but the Player plug-in has had security flaws which theoretically may expose a computer to remote attacks (see [6] and [7] for a December 2002 problem, addressed by a public warning and patch from Macromedia). There have been no (published) security incidents since. Flash Player is considered safe to use, especially when compared to modern browsers in general.

The Flash application files can quite easily be decompiled into its source code and assets. Several available programs extract graphics, sounds and program code from swf files. For example, an open source program called Flasm allows users to extract ActionScript from a swf file as virtual machine intermediate language ("byte-code"), edit it, and then reinsert it into the file. Obfuscation of the swf files makes the extraction infeasible in most cases.

Competition

In October 1998 Macromedia disclosed the Flash Version 3 Specification to the world on its website. It did this in response to many new and often semi-open formats competing with SWF, such as XARA's Flare and Sharp's Extended Vector Animation formats. Several developers quickly created a C library for producing SWF. February 1999 saw the launch of MorphInk 99, the first non-Macromedia or third party program to create SWF files. Macromedia also hired Middlesoft to create a freely-available developers' kit for the SWF file format versions 3 to 5. Many open and free libraries based on the information released to the public in 1998, and from later study of the SWF file format, such as the Ming library, exist to produce SWF files on many platforms. Macromedia has made the Flash Files specifications for versions 6 and later available only as a PDF under a non-disclosure agreement.

Many shareware developers produced Flash creation tools and sold them for under $50 USD between 2000 and 2002. In 2003 competition and the emergence of free Flash creation tools, most notably OpenOffice.org, had driven many third-party Flash-creation tool-makers out of the market, allowing the remaining developers to raise their prices, although many of the products still cost less than $100 USD and support Actionscript. F4L has started to develop such a tool including an interface similar to that of Macromedia's.

Adobe wrote a package called Adobe LiveMotion, designed to create interactive animation content and export it to a variety of formats, including SWF. LiveMotion went through two major releases, but failed to gain any notable user base. Adobe cancelled it in 2003.

In November 2003 Microsoft announced that it had started working on a competing product, Sparkle, whose release would coincide with that of their next-generation Windows operating system codenamed Windows Longhorn. The purchase of Creature House Inc.'s assets in September 2003 has led to speculation that their Expression graphics engine would form the basis for the Sparkle product.

Influence

The nature and popularity of Flash has had a large influence in graphic design. Its rotoscoping feature led to the widespread popularity of rotoscoped vector graphics in the default pastel colors of the Flash authoring tools. Many flyers, advertisements, magazines, and even websites which did not use Flash adopted this graphic style. For example, the Apple iPod campaign with character outlines on colorful backgrounds can be seen heavily influenced by the paradigmatic Flash design style.

File types Used

Product history

Future developments

Attendees at selected Macromedia seminars and conferences in 2004 previewed some future features of the Flash player (version 8). The most notable new features included realtime video alpha channels and bitmap effects (blurs, drop shadows). Video alpha channels allow Flash to display video clips with transparency. The example SWF shown used a video clip of a person walking across the screen while the background video clip could be changed by clicking separate buttons. The clip of the person blended seamlessly into whichever background was selected.

Flash guru Colin Moock has a blog entry that highlights some of the new features and provides video clips from Macromedia's presentation in Tokyo.

See also

External links

Games from Sonic to Streetfighter, made in Macromedia Flash

See also: Macromedia Flash, 10 September, 15 June, 15 March, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000