[Flashcoders] AIR native extension - Windows debugging

[Henrik Andersson]

Ever wanted to play with classics like ReadProcessMemory in
Actionscript? Now you can!

I have written an ANE that exposes the Windows debugging API for use in
ActionScript. It comes with a asdoc reference manual for easy API learning.

It allows access to everything you'd expect from a basic debugger as
well as from an advanced debugger. You can control memory, work with
breakpoints, deal with debugging events and more! The underlaying C code
exposes a shocking 56 functions for use in actionscript. This is the
complete debugging solution.

It's still beta, but please check it out.

http://www.henke37.cjb.net/windebug/

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[John McCormack]

Very comprehensive!
I suppose these are the hooks that Microsoft uses when a program crashes.

Henrik, I noticed that your subject has "AIR native extension".

Are you of the opinion that AIR still has a long life ahead of it?
I ask because I like AS3 and would like to write some app's for delivery
in AIR but am afraid to go down a dead end.

John

> .

[Henrik Andersson]

The rumors of Flash dying are overblown. The Flash and AIR runtimes are
still great at what they do.

Apple pulled a stunt to shame Flash, but the truth is that they just
wanted to protect their appstore. They didn't want to kill Flash. They
wanted to kill Flash apps in the browser. They have succeeded, within
their target market. Developers obeyed the dictators and moved to the
appstore. The runtime remains great.

John McCormack skriver:

> Very comprehensive!
> I suppose these are the hooks that Microsoft uses when a program crashes.
>
> Henrik, I noticed that your subject has "AIR native extension".
>
> Are you of the opinion that AIR still has a long life ahead of it?
> I ask because I like AS3 and would like to write some app's for
> delivery in AIR but am afraid to go down a dead end.
>
> John
>
>
>

[Merrill, Jason]

I just have to add, "the rumors of Flash dying are overblown", is correct. Flash isn't dying, its already dead. Doesn't matter how good the runtime is, it's hardly used much anymore compared to what it used to be. Sorry, I don't mean to be snarky, but I just don't agree with the "Flash isn't dead" idea. Does it have to go away completely to be dead? No, but it's certainly lost 90% of its relevance on the WWW, and that to me, is "dead".

Jason Merrill
Instructional Technology Architect II
Bank of America  Global Learning
703.302.9265

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[John R. Sweeney Jr.]

I never really used Flash much for the WWW. I build applications and Flash is doing great for me. I have over a dozen apps in the iTunes store and 6 of them are now going over to the Android store and dozens, upon dozens are available for PC/MAC.

Touchscreens for trade shows, corporate and private, kiosks, video walls, audience polling software and the list goes on and on…

Have a nice day,
John

John R. Sweeney Jr.
Senior Interactive Multimedia Developer
OnDemand Interactive Inc
Hoffman Estates, IL 60169

On Sep 5, 2014, at 12:49 PM, Merrill, Jason <jason....@bankofamerica.com> wrote:

> I just have to add, "the rumors of Flash dying are overblown", is correct. Flash isn't dying, its already dead. Doesn't matter how good the runtime is, it's hardly used much anymore compared to what it used to be. Sorry, I don't mean to be snarky, but I just don't agree with the "Flash isn't dead" idea. Does it have to go away completely to be dead? No, but it's certainly lost 90% of its relevance on the WWW, and that to me, is "dead".

[Merrill, Jason]

Well that's great it's going well for you. I personally don't see a lot of Flash-based jobs out there anymore though. But great it's not dead to you. I do miss it.

Jason Merrill
Instructional Technology Architect II
Bank of America  Global Learning
703.302.9265






-----Original Message-----
From: flashcode...@chattyfig.figleaf.com [mailto:flashcode...@chattyfig.figleaf.com] On Behalf Of John R. Sweeney Jr.
Sent: Friday, September 05, 2014 2:51 PM
To: Flash Coders List
Subject: Re: [Flashcoders] AIR native extension - Windows debugging

I never really used Flash much for the WWW. I build applications and Flash is doing great for me. I have over a dozen apps in the iTunes store and 6 of them are now going over to the Android store and dozens, upon dozens are available for PC/MAC.

Touchscreens for trade shows, corporate and private, kiosks, video walls, audience polling software and the list goes on and on.

Have a nice day,
John

John R. Sweeney Jr.
Senior Interactive Multimedia Developer
OnDemand Interactive Inc
Hoffman Estates, IL 60169




On Sep 5, 2014, at 12:49 PM, Merrill, Jason <jason....@bankofamerica.com> wrote:

> I just have to add, "the rumors of Flash dying are overblown", is correct. Flash isn't dying, its already dead. Doesn't matter how good the runtime is, it's hardly used much anymore compared to what it used to be. Sorry, I don't mean to be snarky, but I just don't agree with the "Flash isn't dead" idea. Does it have to go away completely to be dead? No, but it's certainly lost 90% of its relevance on the WWW, and that to me, is "dead".


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Flashcoders mailing list
Flash...@chattyfig.figleaf.com
http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders

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[John McCormack]

There may have been some merit in Apple's battery argument since greater
cpu activity, for Flash's vector format, might incur a greater energy cost.

Although Flash is having a hard time I was thinking more of using AIR,
which I think has more life left in it.

The thing is, I have no idea how active developers are with app's
delivered via AIR.
Are there many AIR app's being produced?

John

> .

[Henrik Andersson]

The problem here is developers not stating what runtime they use for
their apps. What can be done is checking existing apps for obvious signs
of the runtime. Shouldn't take long for someone to crawl the appstore
and check all the apps for the fingerprint of the runtime.

John McCormack skriver:

> There may have been some merit in Apple's battery argument since
> greater cpu activity, for Flash's vector format, might incur a greater
> energy cost.
>
> Although Flash is having a hard time I was thinking more of using AIR,
> which I think has more life left in it.
>
> The thing is, I have no idea how active developers are with app's
> delivered via AIR.
> Are there many AIR app's being produced?
>
>

[Karl DeSaulniers]

I still get banner jobs believe it or not. Working on one currently. But has become a lot more sparse then before the S. Jobs bandwagon started rolling.

Best,
Karl

Sent from losPhone

[John McCormack]

Good point.
Thanks
John

> .

[Rick]

AIR app installs cross a billion - April 2014
"now powers almost a hundred thousand unique applications on desktops and mobile devices.

http://blogs.adobe.com/flashplayer/2014/04/air-app-installs-cross-a-billion.html

It's such a great platform still - I've been using it to make ios apps with good results. The weakness is how it is perceived. But clients do smile at the reduced developer costs and its great capabilities. If only adobe would hire an a-list PR firm to change the perception to match the reality.

> Date: Sat, 6 Sep 2014 20:18:12 +0100
> From: jo...@easypeasy.co.uk
> To: flash...@chattyfig.figleaf.com

> Subject: Re: [Flashcoders] AIR native extension - Windows debugging
>

[John McCormack]

That's really encouraging.
Great!
Thanks

[James Merrill]

I was one of those Flash evangelists that fought the good fight against
HTML/JS/CSS for years.... And I can remember when the iPhone was launched
almost 8 years ago and everyone called it the death of Flash.

You can debate the merits of Steve Jobs' comments on Flash all day, but the
damage was done, 8 years ago.

In the last 2-3 years amazing things have been cultivated in JS/CSS/HTML5.
We now have two-way data binding with Angular, and responsive CSS to handle
all devices out there. We have something kind of like Starling for the DOM
called Reactjs. Building RIA's has never been easier, and frameworks like
Cordova allow them to be published to not only the web, but mobile devices
too.

There's been a ton of innovation with how we build websites and apps in
HTML, and things are getting more exciting with a stronger focus on
animation and interactivity <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8TXgCzxEnw>.
There's a unified force in the community pushing new features for us
developers to use. I have to wonder how this compares to the Flash
community. Is Adobe adding new features? Are there new frameworks coming
out that redefine Flash development as we know it?

Flash does a lot of things very well, but I wonder how much longer can it
be relevant without major support from Adobe. I'm sure there's still jobs
out there for Flash devs, but I'd have to imagine the pool is getting
smaller.




On Sun, Sep 7, 2014 at 12:26 PM, John McCormack <jo...@easypeasy.co.uk>
wrote:

--
James Merrill
toThePixel.com <http://www.toThePixel.com>

[John McCormack]

James,

I would prefer to avoid learning a handful of applications, if possible,
though I did follow your link and subscribe to the channel. Thank you.

It sounds such a spaghetti mix one has to learn before even attempting
to write the app:
JS + CSS + HTML5 +Angular +Reactjs +Cordova

Flash Builder can publish an app straight to the tablet, how does one go
about the with the combination you use?

You used to be interested in IntelliJ - is that the IDE you settled on?

On Flash Builder:
Today I asked Adobe for the upgrade price to Flash Builder 4.7 Premium
but the guy didn't know if was kept up-to-date as the CC version is.

One Adobe's site the forum has one recent post and the rest are from
weeks ago, so no clue there about what, if anything is happening.

What IDE's are other people using?

John

[James Merrill]

Oh it is a spaghetti mix of code. But that's not necessarily evil.

Think about it this way, you're not really supposed to be mixing them, they
are supposed to be complimenting each other.

Your HTML defines your content, and that's it.
Your CSS adds fonts, colors, positioning, and simple interactivity, that's
it.
Your JS adds logic to your project.

So you're not actually mixing everything together, you're leveraging each
one to add an integral piece to your project. You may take on all these
jobs yourself, or you may not. Some companies have frontend developers who
do HTML/CSS and dedicated Javascript developers to only do JS. It's a
different way of thinking than using one platform for everything.

It can be unnerving trying to keep up with all of the new JS frameworks
that are constantly coming up, and even worse trying to integrate them all.
Trust me, I get paid to do it. Fortunately there's a massive community to
fall back on when it comes to troubleshooting.

If you're building Flex apps you'd definitely like Angular, which you would
use with Cordova to publish to iPad. Basically, Cordova is part of
Phonegap, which is a build system for deploying to mobile devices. Phonegap
will wrap your code in a native app with a web view, so it's essentially a
website being viewed in an app. Cordova is a javascript library that
exposes all the native APIs of iOS/Android, so now your app can do much
more than a website. I have used XCode on a Mac to test my Phonegap apps.
IIRC, the native wrapper isn't changing, only the internal HTML/CSS/JS, so
you don't have to compile like you would with a native app. I also used
this to my advantage by building parts of the app in-browser.

You could use Angular to structure your app in a MVC-like pattern, and then
use Phonegap to deploy it.

Also, I've switched to using Sublime Text 3 as my editor of choice, and I
can't recommend it enough.

Hopefully that helps!



On Mon, Sep 8, 2014 at 12:04 PM, John McCormack <jo...@easypeasy.co.uk>

--
James Merrill
toThePixel.com <http://www.toThePixel.com>

[John McCormack]

I shall attempt a Dr. Who re-juvination (re-incarnation) into a
multi-brained octopus!

Although I am familiar with how PHP/HTML/JS/CSS work together, its
amazing that all these other elements can also work together and that
Phonegap can wrap your code the way it does.

Thanks very much for that. If its the way for me to go I have a lot to
find out. I will have a look at Phonegap.

On the other hand, I wonder what IDE other people are using for to
publish in AIR.
I really don't want a subscription service like CC.

Much appreciated.

John

Flash Coders List <flash...@chattyfig.figleaf.com>

[John McCormack]

Phonegap:
Well, I am amazed.
Thanks to all.
John

On 08/09/2014 20:39, James Merrill wrote:

[Rick]

Phonegap is great until you want to do something out of its parameters.

Also, my experience has been: "build once, debug everywhere"


> Date: Tue, 9 Sep 2014 12:13:40 +0100

[tom rhodes]

At the end of the day it's still a JS app being run on the device, native
will always be faster/more performant.

[John R. Sweeney Jr.]

Flash CS6 and/or FlashCC and AIR and they both work great on PC/MAC/IOS/Android.


Later,

John

John R. Sweeney Jr.
Senior Interactive Multimedia Developer
OnDemand Interactive Inc
Hoffman Estates, IL 60169

On Sep 9, 2014, at 7:34 AM, Rick <rickh...@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Phonegap is great until you want to do something out of its parameters.
>
> Also, my experience has been: "build once, debug everywhere"

[John McCormack]

John

Is Flash Builder Enterprise kept up to date, as the CC version is?
The Flash Builder for CS6 doesn't change.

John

> .

[John R. Sweeney Jr.]

Sorry, I do not know. I use the Flash Pro IDE.

John R. Sweeney Jr.
Senior Interactive Multimedia Developer
OnDemand Interactive Inc
Hoffman Estates, IL 60169

On Sep 9, 2014, at 2:40 PM, John McCormack <jo...@easypeasy.co.uk> wrote:

> Is Flash Builder Enterprise kept up to date,

[Paul A.]

On the face of it this is a simple thing to solve, but it's driving me nuts.

I am trying to update an AS2 project for a client to AS3. The code
naturally contains code all over the place, attached to buttons and on
the timeline.

The problem for me is that there is a LOT of code disributed over loads
of frames, inside movieclips and on the timeline.

I'm using Flash CS6. For the most part the compiler is helpful, but on
this occasion finding the source of the problem is very hard, and by
source I mean the actual source code where the error is, not just a
solution.

Generally the error is along the lines of

*frame 1, line 1 **1086 syntax error expecting semicolon before leftbrace*

..repeated LOADS of times.

If the problem really was on frame 1, line 1 of the main timeline, it
would be great, but it's not. SOmetimes as I experiment with removing
frames, etc, the frame number changes.

By temporarily removing frames from the main timeline, and making layers
into guides, I can narrow the generation of the errors to specific
symbols. Unfortunately it's slow to do this and there's loads of nested
sympols and a lot of animation frames.

It's a nightmare.

Any ideas for finding where these are originating from without searching
painfully through the source?

I should say that other errors are correctly identified and their
location shown. No issues with those and now I only have these 1086
errors left.

I have taken the AS2 fla, copied all of the frames and layers into an
AS3 project and the errors are there.

Paul

[Mike Duguid]

Saving as .xfl might allow you to search (and possibly replace) through the
associated xml files more efficiently than working through a complex .fla

[Paul A.]

On 12/09/2014 14:30, Mike Duguid wrote:
> Saving as .xfl might allow you to search (and possibly replace) through the
> associated xml files more efficiently than working through a complex .fla

Good suggestion.

I've currently managed to extract all of the actionscript using the
MovieExplorer, but gosh it's a needle in a haystack!

Thanks,

Paul

[Paul A.]

I managed to isolate a small part of the project and copied it to a new
project - just to experiment.

Running as AS2 lost the problematic error completely.

Running again as AS3 saw it restored. Despite the compiler saying that
it ignores actionscript attached to symbols, that seems to be the
problem. Removing an on (release) handler in the AS2 code sees the error
go away when building as an AS3 project.

Paul

[Paul A.]

Any Flash developers targetting Air on IOS, tested their apps on IOS8?

It seems some changes in IOS 8 have upset some native apps. Will I get a
stream of phone calls very soon or will everything I've made so far
continue to work?

I would try it myself but I'd rather wait until the official release.

[Paul A.]

Well, with IOS 8 released, I tried out those apps I built with CS6 and
Air for IOS 3.4.

All broken.. :-(

Client informed that they better not upgrade to IOS8 and will they
require all the apps to be rebuilt for IOS8..

Paul

[Mike Duguid]

I have some apps built with air 14 for ios8, initial testing seems to be
ok, the only glitch being they now pop up a message about allowing
notifications on the first launch (even though the apps don't use
notifications). What's broken in yours specifically?

[Paul A.]

On 19/09/2014 14:01, Mike Duguid wrote:
> I have some apps built with air 14 for ios8, initial testing seems to be
> ok, the only glitch being they now pop up a message about allowing
> notifications on the first launch (even though the apps don't use
> notifications). What's broken in yours specifically?

Two just hang with a black screen, two hang on the opening screen.

I think that a rebuild with Flash CC and the current version of Air for
IOS should sort it out.

Paul

[Paul A.]

On 19/09/2014 20:11, Paul A. wrote:
> On 19/09/2014 14:01, Mike Duguid wrote:
>> I have some apps built with air 14 for ios8, initial testing seems to be
>> ok, the only glitch being they now pop up a message about allowing
>> notifications on the first launch (even though the apps don't use
>> notifications). What's broken in yours specifically?
> Two just hang with a black screen, two hang on the opening screen.
>
> I think that a rebuild with Flash CC and the current version of Air
> for IOS should sort it out.

Here's an update.

Flash CC did sort it out but caused a new problem - Flash CC no longer
supports TLF text, so all of the TLF text was converted to classic flash
text.

Unfortunately, it changed size and layout in the conversion and so I've
had to revisit all TLF text.

The conversion goes to static text, all of the named TLF text then was
dangling in code..

Bit of a pain all round.

Paul