[swfmill] swfmill needs your help.

[Dan Shryock]

I am not attempting to get off topic here, but I just thought I would
mention to those interested in an IDE based on swfmill and mtasc the
existence of flashdevelop.  I believe that it is open source, and
written in c# (unfortunately not cross platform).  It has integration
for both the mtasc/swfmill combo as well as using the new Adobe
command line tools for flex2 development.

Dan Shryock

On 1/9/07, Marc Reichelt <post at marcreichelt.de> wrote:
> Hi Dan,
>
> I'm using swfmill since around a year now, and I'm using it for two
> projects. One that I do for university is nearly finished, and it's nice
> to see how great the tools MTASC and swfmill work together.
> The biggest job is done by MTASC here (I'm not using any complex
> functions of swfmill right now, but big ActionScript 2.0 files), but as
> I need some complex movie clips from other *.swf Files (which do only
> work since 0.2.11.15 or so) I'm fixed to use the latest prereleases.
>
> The project does work with 0.2.11.22 as it should, no problems here.
>
> Finally, because I have a valid Flash MX license (yes, I really spent
> money on it), I could create some *.swf files containing complex movie
> clips and test if they can be imported by swfmill.
>
> > [...]
> >   So. I learned a lesson: Dont do open-source for the money.
>
> It took me a long time to create a senseful connection between open
> source and money. The question I constantly asked myself was:
> "How can projects like Apache, Linux, Mozilla etc. can be so much better
> than proprietary products? The companies spent much more money on
> proprietary products, so how can this be?"
>
> The final answer I found a few months ago was that my question was
> wrong: The big open source projects earn much more money than
> proprietary ones - the only difference here is that _many_ companies
> (and private persons) spend a small amount of money and working time
> (which is money!) on open source projects. Overall there is more money
> spent on big open source projects.
>
> The conclusion is: Open Source projects work well if there is a big
> community to support them.
>
> That means that swfmill has to be used more often in order to earn more
> money with it. I don't think that there will be many donations more, but
> at least if swfmill is used more often companies will realise that they
> need additional functions, and they need a person that will implement
> those functions for them. And who is better on swfmill: Is it a
> programmer that has to spend much time to learn how swfmill works until
> he can modify it, or is it you, Dan? ;)
>
> That's how open source and money work together.
>
> >  * test the latest prerelease (0.2.11.22), and *report if it works*. As the useOutlines issue showed, my fear of introducing regressions is not completely psychological. I want to see at least about 5 reports of "i use swfmill in this-or-that-context, and 0.2.11.22 works flawless" before finally going 0.2.12. If you want to help more, start organizing the construction of an extended set of simple test cases for automatic regression tests.
>
> As I wrote above, 0.2.11.22 works fine here.
>
> >  * swfmill needs documentation. there is a lot floating around, but it needs a loving hand of collecting and organizing it into something like a manual. Please, someone, step forward and take on this issue. It could be one weekend of work, but would make an incredible difference and you could be certain of the thanks of many a newbie.
>
> I'm interested in it, but right now I have to work hard in university.
> What would be the best method for the documentation? A HTML page? I
> would appreciate that one. :)
>
> > when and if swfmill gets a release and some better docs, it is back on the road to being a stable tool. is that in your interest?
>
> Yes, of course. Or what did you expect? ;)
> I won't wait for the documentation to be done before the release of
> 0.2.12 - just release it, the documentation will be done afterwards.
>
> I'm really interested in the idea of Brian who noticed that an IDE would
> be useful. As you wrote, swfmill is really stable now - why not creating
> an IDE (e.g. written in Java, which will be open-sourced in a few weeks)
> that uses MTASC for ActionScript code and swfmill to glue all together?
> I'm thinking of an IDE that looks like the official IDE by Adobe.
>
> That would have many advantages:
> - There is an IDE for users who don't like commandline tools
> - The community is getting bigger (bigger community => more money)
> - The development of swfmill and MTASC continues, as they are a
> requirement for the IDE
>
> I'm not the one to start this IDE because I have some other projects
> which are waiting to be developed for a long time, but IMHO it's a great
> idea.
>
>
> Regards
>
> Marc Reichelt   ||   http://www.marcreichelt.de/
>
> PS: Sorry for the long mail and wasting your time. ;)
>
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