Flash and Flex APIs Lack in Quality

Coming from long term Java programming, I can see that I have gotten used to very good api design. It is not, that JavaSE and JavaEE doesn’t have their corners of bad api design. But working with flash and flex, I seem to come across strange and bad api design a bit too often.
The other [...]

September 11, 2008  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Design, Programming  10 Comments

Are AS3 Number Variables Real Objects or Not?

I am confused. Is the Number class really a class, that I can create instances of and expect to have reference semantics etc. like the rest of the classes in ActionScript3?
Given this AS3 code:

var foo : Number = null;
trace("foo="+foo);

The compiler outputs a warning saying “null used where a Number value was expected“, but it does [...]

September 11, 2008  Tags: ,   Posted in: Programming  8 Comments

Flex Leads To Clash Between Java and Flash Communities

I will go out on a limb here, and say something totally general about two developer communities, and how they view each other. We define ourselves against others (those who do not are the true innovators), and now, I will go define myself against others So what do I mean? Flex have spawned a [...]

June 3, 2008  Tags: ,   Posted in: Programming, Rich Internet Applications  4 Comments

64bit Flash Player on Linux – Do It Yourself

In a recent blog post, James Ward from Adobe write about where the 64bit support for flash player on linux is. The main point in the post is, that Adobe, by open sourcing the VM of the flashplayer in the tamarin project, has made it possible for us to do the 64bit support for them. [...]

May 16, 2008  Tags: , , , ,   Posted in: Operating Systems  2 Comments

Public Flashplayer Bug Database

I have previously complained about flashplayer being closed, and bugs reported in flex public jira “disappeared” into a closed bug database in flashplayer.
Well, know Adobe has opened up the flashplayer bug database, as a public flashplayer Jira instance. Great work, Adobe! It is definitely a step in the right direction, to open up the process [...]

April 10, 2008  Tags:   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments

Make Your Voice Heard At Adobe

I am regularly reading Matt Chotin from Adobe to get information about flex.
I just came across a post about a flex and coldfusion survey they are running, and because I use and care about flex, I took the time to take the survey. I just wanted to let you all know, that this survey is [...]

March 15, 2008  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments

Adobe Makes Linux Citizens Be Second Rang

It should be so nice, but it is not. What can be downloaded of the new Flex 3 and AIR 1 releases? Windows and Mac versions, but no Linux version yet! I know, they have alpha/beta releases of Flex Builder 3 for linux, but they have no final release. Adobe has started releasing flashplayer for [...]

March 12, 2008  Tags: , , ,   Posted in: Tools  No Comments

Not All of Flex is So Open

Here we go again, with a little rant about Adobe and their half-way openness in flex.
They keep shouting about flex being open source, which is true, sort of. I mean, it is, but there are components in it, that are not. Take the new flex3, for instance. If you browse the flex3 SDK apidocs (and [...]

March 12, 2008  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Tools  One Comment

Adobe Not Playing Nice On Flex Bugs

Today, I shall tell a story about bad bug handling from Adobe on the flex framework. A story about Adobe pushing their payware LCDS product, as a solution to a bug in flex or flash!
A while ago, I posted on flash still being closed and proprietary, to make us think about that, before blindly adopting [...]

February 5, 2008  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Rich Internet Applications, Uncategorized  One Comment

Flash FileReference.browse Problems on Linux

When developing flash applications using flex, you can use flash.net.FileReference to upload files from the client to the server. Lately, we have been having problems with this on linux, and through a flex bug report on FileReference.browse Adobe helped me out. The problem was, that the flashplayer did not upload any file, the first [...]

December 30, 2007  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Programming  One Comment