  | | | JSAPI MXML parser | JSAPI MXML parser 2004-05-03 - By Scott Hyndman
Back I think it's a fantastic idea. Like you've said, not a small task, but very possible.
-- --Original Message-- -- From: Samuel R. Neff [mailto:srnlists@(protected)] Sent: May 1, 2004 12:32 PM To: 'Extending Flash' Subject: RE: [ExtendFlash] JSAPI MXML parser
Peter,
I've been thinking about this a lot but there's more to Flex than just parsing MXML--which is what a lot of the run-time things are missing.
To implement MXML we'd need these features minimally:
1. New components, particularly the containers.
2. New base functionality, particularly the sizing rules (widthFlex etc). This is run-time functionality.
3. Create the document object for each MXML file for access by ID regardless of movieclip hierarchy (ok, this is cake).
4. Binding mechanism (Flash has the basics of this, just need to expand to handle expressions)
5. Descriptors. This is a big performance feature of Flex (although no Flex app looks like it has any performance features). Flex doesn't just build all the objects in an app, it creates an object descriptor hierarchy and doesn't actually instantiate objects until the descriptor is referenced. This is something like lazy instantiation.
6. CSS parser. No biggie, but Flex has a lot more CSS support than Flash does. I really wish Flash had it's level of support--it's disappointing that Flash doesn't.
It's certainly feasible to write a C/C++/.NET/Java/Whatever program that parses MXML and generates an FLA from it via JSFL. It's just not a small task to do it right and result in something really useful.
It's not really something you want to do all in JSFL even if it's possible 'cause JSFL really isn't geared towards large projects like that. Besides, if you write it in something else at some point you may be able to swap out the JSFL export for a direct SWF writer and bypass Flash altogether. Then you'll end up with something like Snappmx. :-)
Best regards,
Sam
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> -- --Original Message-- -- > From: Extendflash-bounces@(protected) > [mailto:Extendflash-bounces@(protected)] On Behalf Of Peter Elst > Sent: Saturday, May 01, 2004 4:57 AM > To: Extendflash@(protected) > Subject: [ExtendFlash] JSAPI MXML parser > > Hi guys, > > After seeing the beta FileSystem JSAPI extension DLL in > action I started > thinking about the possibilities that this opens. What about an > author-time MXML parser for the Flash IDE? This would certainly be a > huge task to fulfill but could serve as a good alternative to the > runtime parsing many are proposing now. > > Just an early Saturday morning idea, would love to get some > feedback on > it :) > > Cheers, > Peter
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