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August 21, 2007
Player update, persistent framework
Player update, persistent framework: Today's release adds big new audio/video capabilities... Tinic Uro has a fantastic overview. But Flex applications will speed up too -- the new caching allows different domains to share the Adobe Flex Framework -- if a system has ever used the framework, then you get to reuse it for free. Faster downloads, faster startup. Matt Chotin's previous Devnet article has the best description so far: "One issue that we often hear about is the download size of a simple Flex application. The Flex framework is very robust, and unfortunately the cost of that robustness is its size. Developers who built multiple Flex applications could extract common code between the applications into a runtime shared library (RSL), but most applications could not truly leverage an RSL in this manner. The Flash Player update (to be released at the same time as Flex 3) supports a new cache for Adobe platform components, and the Flex framework qualifies for this cache! The Player cache is different from the browser cache in that it is maintained by the Flash Player; therefore, it is not cleared at the same time as the browser cache, and will only store items that have been signed by Adobe. The first time an end-user downloads a Flex application configured to use the framework as an RSL, the user will receive a permanent copy of that RSL. The next time the user sees a similarly configured Flex application (regardless of where it comes from) the Player will use the copy of the framework from its built-in cache. Configuring a Flex application to use the framework as an RSL will result in a size reduction of anywhere from 90K to 500K. Note that this feature is implemented in a backwards-compatible manner so that end-users who do not have the latest Player will not be forced to upgrade to view the application." More: fullScreenSourceRect "allows developers to specify which part of a SWF is displayed in full-screen mode"... JavaScript communication speedup allows recursive calls and even exception handling to be handled on either side of the ActionScript/JavaScript membrane... better use of multicore systems and improvements to bitmap display too. H264 is big news, but there are many significant changes in this Player Update... the size reduction in Flex apps is amazing.
Posted by JohnDowdell at August 21, 2007 05:20 AM
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Comments
Before keeping adding features (which are always welcome), I believe there are a few things that need to be fixed. I'm actually a bit scared by this:
"Due to a design flaw in ActionScript 3 socket handling, compiled Flash movies are able to scan for open TCP ports on any host reachable from the host running the SWF, bypassing the Flash Player Security Sandbox Model and without the need to rebind DNS."
See for yourself at http://scan.flashsec.org/
Tried and works. For the moment I'll shut down Flash Player.
Any comment?
[jd sez: If you're looking to switch discussion from framework caching to DNS pinning, then I'm not your guy. blogs.adobe.com/security would be better.]
Posted by: Emanuele Cipolloni at August 21, 2007 07:35 AM
No, not switching any discussion, I know your policy ;-) But you're talking about a new release of the Player and the new features which are not just the framework caching, I thought that maybe pointing out the problems along the bells and whistles was a good way to have them noticed.
Posted by: Emanuele Cipolloni at August 21, 2007 09:28 AM
It's as if a million Silverlight engineers cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
Posted by: PaulC at August 21, 2007 11:53 AM
Just to be clear, we are not releasing signed components for the Player during this beta, but by the time we do release, this Player will be available on millions of desktops.
Posted by: Matt (Adobe) at August 21, 2007 02:39 PM
Thanks for the word, Matt!
That's why there's no API, no docs... the Flex 3 Framework from the Adobe domain itself will do the heavy lifting, when it's finalized. Right now we're seeing the capable Players start to emerge, though.... :-)
Posted by: John Dowdell at August 21, 2007 08:47 PM
Does this mean Flex 3 is around the corner?
Posted by: PaulC at August 22, 2007 08:58 AM
Well, the Flex 3 development process is open now. It won't be in release state until next year, though... here's what the PDF FAQ says:
"The release data for Flex 3 has not yet been formally announced, however we are currently targeting the beginning of 2008 for the release of Adobe Flex 3."
jd
Posted by: John Dowdell at August 22, 2007 10:17 AM