[REBOL] Re: Flash tech? Was Re: Re: (No subject)Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2001 17:20:09
From: jasonic:panix at: 21-Nov-2001 14:09
Cyphre" <[cyphre--seznam--cz]> wrote:
> >From my POV Macromedia stuff and their philosophy is very poor against
> Rebol. Yes, Flash and Director has some more gfx features than /View but
> man, It is version 5(Flash) and 8.5(Director)!! I think Macromedia has
just
> one big monopol in their "internet-multimedia" field/market because there
is
> not almost any good alternative technology to compete with.
I agree.
That's why I am so very happy to find REBOL, and right now while /View is
developing in such positive ways. Many exciting things I was discovering 5
years ago with LINGO objects and 'net Xtras [thanks in part to Peter Small's
ideas] are now trivial and implicit to REBOL. But I have used too many
softwares on too many OS to expend much energy bitching about them. All
worth considering have their virtues and vices. How I can use them, learn
from them, imrove them, indivudally and in especially in unexpected
combinations is what drives me most...
It was concern about Macromedia which pusghed to look for better solution. I
found Python, but not enough mutlimedia [it's developing].. and then on to
REBOL..
As we all know, the best art/ideas/technologies rarely gain market
prominence/dominance [don't get them Amigans started..]. The best
art/ideas/technologies often refuse to die fully either, often reborn in
curious ways at curious times Like it or not, Macromedia DOES have a fairly
juggernaut grip right now on the distribution market, and perhaps even worse
upon the popular understanding / imagination of what is possible :-((
.. that's why I am interested to exploit their explotation to get REBOL in
lots of new places: visbly and invisibly, via SWF, PNG whatever else works
and is good to explore
Flash has been mostly abused, thanks largely to dotbomb stupidity. Despite
Macromedia's handling, FLASH does embody some very important good _ideas_...
ones we shall see again and again.. ones which REBOL might embrace.
I argue that the most important idea of Flash for REBOL to enmobody is the
nested timeline object paradigm. The best programmers on Flashcoders, have
been developing ways incerasingly to abstract the timeline to create time
objects so they have richer prpgram control of animation behaviors and
dynamics. They are in effect virtualizing Flash. They really only delpend
upion the player. The rest is increasingly code, which could/should be in
any langauge on any platform.
An encouraging example I came across recently is the PySDL, a Python
module that provides access to the SDL library's functionality. SDL = Simple
Direct Media Layer
http://www.devolution.com/~slouken/projects/SDL/
<quote>
Simple DirectMedia Layer is a cross-platform multimedia library designed to
provide fast access to the graphics framebuffer and audio device. It is used
by MPEG playback software, emulators, and many popular games, including the
award winning Linux port of "Civilization: Call To Power." Simple
DirectMedia Layer supports Linux, Win32, BeOS, MacOS, Solaris, IRIX, and
FreeBSD.
SDL is written in C, but works with C++ natively, and has bindings to
several other languages, including Ada, Eiffel, ML, Perl, PHP, Python, and
Ruby.
</quote>
... but not yet REBOL :-(
REBOL seems to me a very interesting envirnoment to begin modelling such a
system freshly. In time we may have a native display engine, but surely a
wider chioce we can write to:
open engine://somethingmultimedia
write display://lovelydisplay
interested?
> If RT guys would work on /View multimedia stuff intesively for about one
> year they could have made /View as a big competitior against
> Flash(Director). Rebol/View, although it lacks (for now) things like
vector
> gfx, font engine, rotation, alpha channels, free sound, streaming,
> multimedia format support, embedded plugin, it has lots of
advatnages...very
> good core, the language itself, the communication stuff such as ports,
> protocols, and very good mutiplatfom standard quality, cheap prize. (I
> believe, most of you will agree that we couldnot compare Rebol against
> crappy ActionScript or even Lingo.)
Yes Right
RT are sensible to avoid tackling REBOL multimedia capabilities too soon.
The download is small, the scope very wide, and the performrance swift. It
is a very tough business problem overwhelmed largely by distribution
politics and techno-sabotage. The deadly 3Ps: player plugin platform.
Since /View does not yet have these things, how can we get to there from
here ??
a: use SWF/SVG well WITH REBOL
b: experiment, design, and encourage RT and others to improve /View
c: ?? perhaps you have a good idea
> Anyway both technologies has own cool developers and software pieces( just
> have a look at:
> http://www.vectorlounge.com/04_amsterdam/jam/wireframe.html )
LOL: very nice.. thanks for that one!
> I don't want to make any flame wars against MM fans/haters. I just wanted
to
> point out the possibilities for Rebol/View(Hey RT guys! What about eat few
> pieces from big Macromedias money-pie? ;-) ). I still believe RT could
make
> from /View far more better multimedia engine than all MM products are...
.. Let's hope so
cheers
./Jason
