« Mobile gardens | Main | Won't fit under tree »
November 7, 2005
JSifying SWF
JSifying SWF: You may be comfortable using SWF-producing tools, but not everyone is. That's why I think Paul Colton's AFLAX routine is cool. If I'm understanding it correctly, he offers a generic SWF file (aflax.swf), and a matching generic JavaScript file (aflax.js) to talk to this SWF. Then in a second JavaScript file you can write instructions for the desired effects. See this barchart.js file -- it's like a JavaScript developer is writing to a richer rendering engine than what they normally write to, giving a result like this. Advantages? More approachable for those already using a JS-centric workflow. Disadvantages? Calling more files, more parsing than with a precompiled SWF. It took me a little while to figure out what was going on, and I may still be offbase, but offering Flash-y effects to any JavaScript developer to play in any browser sounds like a good goal to me.
Posted by John Dowdell at November 7, 2005 3:20 PM