The Shumway Open SWF Runtime Project 99
theweatherelectric writes "Mozilla is looking for contributors interested in working on Shumway. Mozilla's Jet Villegas writes, 'Shumway is an experimental web-native (Javascript) runtime implementation of the SWF file format. It is developed as a free and open source project sponsored by Mozilla Research. The project has two main goals: 1. Advance the open web platform to securely process rich media formats that were previously only available in closed and proprietary implementations. 2. Offer a runtime processor for SWF and other rich media formats on platforms for which runtime implementations are not available.'"
See also: Gnash and Lightspark.
Sounds great, would prefer ActionScript / Flex (Score:5, Insightful)
I love the Free / OSS nature of something like this, but one of the absolute best** things about Flash is the ActionScript language (specifically AS3) (and to a lesser extent flex).
Since it is based on ECMAScript, it offers nearly everything JavaScript does and more. Classes, Inheritance, Polymorphism, both dynamic and static typing, etc, etc. And some things I find truly awesome such as the EventDispacter pattern and DisplayObject event bubbling.
So what are the chances of ActionScript being considered for something like this? Are there legal hurdles that make it a non-starter?
Also, how does this compare to other OSS flash players like Gnash? Conceivably this could solve the biggest problem with Flash, the lack of security involved when the player is proprietary.
**Yes, Adobe stagnated and got lax about security as well as bundled toolbars with the plugin as well as other privacy implication with SharedObjects. However, as a scripting and vector animating platform, Flash was amazing tech. And it makes damn nice RIAs and did great for video for its time. However it's clear that time is over due to some serious missteps on Adobe's part. So please don't get me wrong, there are many valid criticisms of Flash, but it was an innovative technology (and still is to a much less extent).
Re:No thanks (Score:4, Insightful)
Just what I need! More Adobe middleware! (Score:3, Insightful)
But I do REALLY like the idea of html5 instead of flash. Sure, it was funny for awhile to call apple products crippled because they couldn't have a full web experience, but I've been having problems with Shockwave / Flash products for years.
It does need to remain supported, I agree. And opened up? Great!
But developed? Encouraged? Promoted? No thank you. I'd rather see the [blink] tag supported in facebook.
Re:Oh, boy! (Score:2, Insightful)
I won't get to know.
I block flash and I block javascript. I only whitelist js for certain sites but mostly, its all blocked.
(and nothing of value was lost...)