Adobe Flash

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Adobe Flash, a multimedia authoring software developed by Adobe Systems (formerly by Macromedia), is used to create vector graphics-based animation programs, rich content, user interfaces and web applications, and combine videos with web pages.

Adobe Flash is written in C++, and contains ActionScript (a scripting language) for building almost all the interactivity (buttons, text entry fields, drop down menus) in its applications. In order to view standalone Adobe Flash (SWF) multimedia files and interact with Flash content, users need to download and install Adobe Flash Player, which is a multiple-platform client runtime software application.

History

Flash program was built by Jonathan Gay, who began his professional Programming life as a Macintosh software engineer early in high school. After years of game design, he focused on building graphics editors and started FutureWave Software company with Charlie Jackson in 1993. In order to make drawing on the computer easier than drawing on paper, they built software called SmartSketch.

As a competitor of Illustrator and FreeHand, SmartSketch didn't gain success until 1995, it was turned into an animation product FutureSplash Animator for people sending graphics and animation over Internet. The ancestor of Flash Player was also born at that time.

In August of 1996, FutureSplash got big support from Microsoft and Disney Online. Microsoft used FutureSplash on MSN to create the most TV-like experience on the Internet. And Disney Online adopted FutureSplash to build animation and the user interface for the Disney Daily Blast.

In December 1996, FutureWave Software was sold to Macromedia, and FutureSplash Animator became Macromedia Flash 1.0. Since then, Flash becomes synonymous with animation on the Internet.[1]

Authoring tool released timeline

Product NameReleased Year
FutureSplash Animator1996
Macromedia Flash 11996
Macromedia Flash 21997
Macromedia Flash 31998
Macromedia Flash 41999
Macromedia Flash 52000
Macromedia Flash MX (version 6)2002
Macromedia Flash MX 2004 (version 7)2003
Macromedia Flash Basic 82005
Macromedia Flash Professional 82005
Adobe Flash CS3 Professional2007

Player released timeline

Product NameReleased Year
Macromedia Flash 21997
Macromedia Flash 31998
Macromedia Flash 41999
Macromedia Flash 52001
Macromedia Flash MX2002
Macromedia Flash MX 20042003
Macromedia Flash 82005
Adobe Flash 9 for Windows and Macintosh2006
Adobe Flash 9 for Linux2007
Adobe Flash CS32007
Adobe Flash Player 102008

Technology

Standard

Flash hasn't complied to W3C standard perfectly, alough there is a way to use <object> tag to insert flash files into web pages, the common usage of <embed> is a illegal tag, which is a private tag of Netspace, but not recognized by W3C.

In the Draft Recommendation of the HTML 5, the W3C has a section named "Relationship to XUL, Flash, Silverlight, and other proprietary UI languages", which says, "This specification is independent of the various proprietary UI languages that various vendors provide. As an open, vender-neutral language, HTML provides for a solution to the same problems without the risk of vendor lock-in." [2]

Features & Functions

Examples

How to make an animation using Flash?

An animation is constituted by a series of frames. Each frame represents a single static motion. When they are shown in sequence, it looks like the object on the picture is moving. Here is a simple example of making an animation:

First, new a flat file and make two layers as follows:

(CC) Image: Ganggang Hu
Made by Ganggang Hu, 2008
(CC) Image: Ganggang Hu
Made by Ganggang Hu, 2008


































Second, set the 10th frame as the keyframe for the first layer and the 20th frame as the keyframe for the second layer.

Finally, export, save as a swf file and display the animation:

(CC) Image: Ganggang Hu
Made by Ganggang Hu, 2008























How to put Flash into a web page?

For the compatibility among different kinds of browser, the format of embedding Flash in HTML is as follows:

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/hE1K0ZeTtAw&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/hE1K0ZeTtAw&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Or write as follows to comply with W3C standard:

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/hE1K0ZeTtAw&hl=en&fs=1" width="400" height="300"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/hE1K0ZeTtAw&hl=en&fs=1" /> </object>

Market

Sociological aspects

User feedback

Competitors

Future developments

Adobe AIR is a cross-operating system runtime being developed by Adobe since November 2007 that allows developers to leverage their existing web development skills (Flash, Flex, HTML, JavaScript, Ajax) to build and deploy rich Internet applications (RIAs) to the desktop.[3]

As of February 2008, Adobe Systems is working on a research project to make programs written in various languages easier to run on Adobe's ubiquitous Flash Player client runtime. This technology would allow for cross-compiling existing code from C, C++, Java, Python, and Ruby to ActionScript. So these languages can cross-compile to the virtual machine inside Flash and AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime). For example, an alternative PDF renderer providing a lighter version of PDF could be cross-compiled, and the Flash Player could read it and display PDFs.[4]

Another project is called Open Screen Project, which is dedicated to driving rich Internet experiences and creating a consistent application interface across all devices like personal computers, mobile devices or consumer electronics. This project includes abolishing licensing fees for Adobe Flash Player and Adobe Integrated Runtime, removing restrictions on the use of the Shockwave Flash (SWF) and Flash Video (FLV) file formats, publishing Application Programming Interfaces for porting Flash to new devices, and publishing Flash Cast protocol and Action Message Format (AMF) to let Flash applications receive information from remote databases.[5]

The next version of Flash will have two additional components designed for large scale implementation. Adobe is adding in the option to require an advertisement to be played in full before the main video piece is played, and gives companies the option to link an advertisement with content and make sure that both are played and that they not be changed, which would bring advantages to large scale video sites.[6]

Reference

  1. ↑ Gay, Jonathan. "The History of Flash"
  2. ↑ "HTML 5 Draft Recommendation — 2 August 2008"
  3. ↑ "AIR:Developer FAQ"
  4. ↑ Krill, Paul, 02.26.2008, "Adobe extending Flash platform"
  5. ↑ "Open Screen Project"
  6. ↑ "Adobe unveils Flash video control"
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