Penguin.SWF

I don't mind telling you that I'm a little nervous about this business of Debian switching to EGLIBC. I know, it's supposed to be binary compatible and it shouldn't matter to application developers. Does that include developers of closed source binaries? In developing the Flash Player, we've seen problems with C library compatibility before, and that was just in trying to support a single C library across multiple distributions. So now I'm worried about subtle API or binary incompatibilities that may arise between the 2 C libraries.

So far, this is a Debian move. But that may influence other distributions. From reading various sources and bug trackers, it looks like more distributions are evaluating the idea (or perhaps just fielding questions from users who are not up to speed on the issues but who have read the headlines).

There are already enough challenges in trying to produce a single binary that runs across as many Linux distributions as possible. But who knows? Maybe this will whole episode blow over like so many audio APIs.

Posted by Mike Melanson at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (66)

We are pleased to announce that there is now a version of the Flash Player for Linux that supports 16 theoretical exabytes of physical memory. This technological feat is accomplished using a bleeding edge type of processor known as a 64-bit CPU.

Pictured: the next big thing-- an 80-bit CPU; but 64 bits will have to do for now

So we have this x86-64 version of the Linux Flash Player available for those Linux users who have moved on to fully 64-bit computing environments. Go get it now on Labs. Be advised that this is pre-release quality. We hope to receive useful feedback about what areas need to be improved. You can help. You can report bugs at the Flash Player bug tracker. Hey, it gets results-- the 64-bit issue is approaching resolution. Or you can try the customary drive-by bug report in the comments section ("I tried it on XYZ distro and it didn't work!") which is almost guaranteed to help no one.

I feel a bit sentimental about it all. It's weird, but I think I'm going to miss the hundreds of comments on every post gently requesting a 64-bit version. So don't be afraid to pop in with a "64-BIT NOW!!!1!!" comment every so often, you know, just for old time's sake.

Posted by Mike Melanson at 12:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (297)

The version 10 updates of both the SWF and FLV specs are available for your inspection:

• SWF spec
• FLV spec

Here are some of the things added, changed, or corrected:

• new DefineBitsJPEG4 tag (90), with deblocking filter


• new DefineFont4 tag (91)


• described how to embed Speex into SWF and FLV


• described how to embed XMP metadata in FLV


• new flags in the FileAttributes tag describe whether a SWF requires the new 'gpu' or 'direct' WMODEs (only useful when running a SWF in a standalone player where there is no encompassing HTML to specify WMODE)


• new flag in DefineShape4 describes whether the shape uses fill winding rule


• rearranged some chapters to (hopefully) make the SWF spec flow better


• revised DefineBitsJPEG2 and DefineBitsJPEG3 to mention how they can be used to store GIF and PNG data as well as JPEG (as can the new DefineBitsJPEG4 tag; yes, the tag names are a bit misleading, but they're a bit too entrenched to be changed now)


• revised description of the Flash Screen Video v2 codec format


• in F4V, several signed values were incorrectly marked as unsigned


• fixed description of Flash ADPCM (initial predictors are signed, not unsigned; block size was off by 1)


• both documents now thoroughly describe which parameters (channels, bit resolution, sample rate) are fixed or flexible depending on the audio codec


• the FileAttributes tag came about in SWF 8 rather than SWF 1


• fixed the FileAttributes tag, which specifies a Metadata data structure -- not a SymbolClass -- with the hasMetadata flag


• in ButtonRecord and PlaceObject3, list the correct codes for the difference, add, and subtract blend modes


• PlaceObject3 tag description was missing a bitmap caching byte (should have been there since SWF 8 spec)


• in FillStyle, a GradientMatrix is also present for fill style 0x13


• SWF spec now uses "opacity" instead of "transparency" in many places in order to more accurately describe blending behavior


• clarified the maximum length of a SWF file


• fixed several examples


• fixed numerous inconsistencies in the Actions chapter

Thanks to Michael, Baptiste, both Benjamins, Bobby, Amol, Cody, Matthew, Romi, and anyone else I might have missed who also offered corrections and suggestions for improvements.

Posted by Mike Melanson at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

The release version of Flash Player 10 is out there and available for download. Hopefully, it will soon be available from your favorite automated update repository since such package management should resolve the new dependencies needed for Flash Player 10.

Well, that's really all I have to say at the moment. Release announcements for final Player versions are always a tad anticlimactic since we have already been doing beta and prerelease work for months. Though it should be noted that the Linux download page now hosts .deb packages in addition to .tar.gz and .rpm.

Posted by Mike Melanson at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (167)

Firefox 3.0.2 is now out. Lots of security fixes. But for Linux users, the most interesting item that slipped through is "the wmode fix"-- Firefox 3.0.2 fixes the problem of instant, repeatable crashes on a number of windowless-enabled websites. Upgrade quickly, at least for that reason. It's probably most readily available through your package manager.

Also, I neglected to mention that a new Flash Player release candidate (designated 10.0.12.10) is available for download. You shouldn't notice much difference with this RC vs. the previous RC. Of course, I expect there will be users for whom this RC changes everything, whether for better or worse. That's just how it is in this Linux game.

Links:

• Flash Player Release Candidate (10.0.12.10)


• Mozilla.com -- download the Firefox 3.0.2 Linux browser for your preferred language

Posted by Mike Melanson at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (55)