macromedia released flash player 7 for linux yesterday.
chafic kazoun, sam neff, and folks the at b-line express have just released version 3.0 of their superb charting components. the new version is a complete re-write of the components, bringing them up to date with the latest flash mx 2004 v2 component framework.
>> product info
>> api reference
>> info on the new features
chafic kazoun has just published an article on ultrashock that explains some of the core concepts in the flash mx 2004 "v2" component architecture. if you've ever thought to yourself, "gee i'd like to build a component," then you should read chafic's new article:
http://www.ultrashock.com/tutorials/flashmx2004/v2a-01.php
also read his older article on v2 component development (actually you should probably read this one first):
http://www.ultrashock.com/tutorials/flashmx2004/components.php
honestly i just can't help but feel that creating a v2-based component is awkward and hacky. maybe it's just a necessary evil of developing sophisticated ui widgets in a frame-based tool that used to be used for animation, but i still wish the whole process was cleaner. makes me wonder if macromedia will introduce yaca ("yet another component architecture") in the next version of flash. hopefully if they did, it would be a refinement rather than a complete reimplementation. there's actually quite a lot of good stuff in the v2 architecture if you're prepared to weed through the awkward aspects...
the notes for my upcoming flash forward presentation about multiuser experiences are now posted here:
http://moock.org/webdesign/lectures/sharedUserExperiences
flashbelt is a new flash conference for folks in the midwestern united states. the conference is a small one day affair held in minneapolis on june 24, 2004. confirmed speakers are:
laurence bricker
mike downey
robert reinhardt
snow dowd
craig swann
jeremy thorp
good luck to dave schroeder, the conference director!
i didn't notice until recently but it looks like the ecma 4 spec will eventually include a new datatype: native xml. the extension to the spec is called "ECMA for XML" (E4X), and the syntax looks pretty attractive.
the latest version of bea's weblogic workshop implements E4X.
john schneider from the E4X working group has a nice overview of how it feels to use XML as a native datatype here:
http://dev2dev.bea.com/pub/a/2002/09/JSchneider_XML.html
neat stuff...