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What is a Flash Internet Player ?
The current day Flash that we know
of is an up-to-date and highly synergistic platform that not
only has a great design but also an animation authoring tool
with all the latest versions of the video and audio playback
characteristics. The flash can be divided into three portions –
the player, the file format and the authoring tool or IDE.
The player – The virtual
machine in Flash that is responsible for interpreting and
implementing bytecode for ActionScript, its scripting language.
Flash keeps a hierarchy of MovieClip objects in a layered
display list. Each and every object featured on the display list
has its own frame-subdivided timeline. Flash is also capable of
decoding and playing many streams of compressed audio and video
simultaneously. It contains decoders for ADPCM, MP3 and
NellyMoser for audio and Sorenson H.263 and Sorenson Spark for
video.
The file format – SWF
(pronounce it as s-w-i-f-f), from Shockwave Flash, is the file
format used by Flash. SWF has gone through various stages of
revisions and modifications over the years and at present is a
tag based binary format that has been designed for streaming
with zlib compression on top to keep it small and manageable.
However, Flash and SWF are not synonymous. While the former has
a closed FLA document format, the latter is a free and open file
format.
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IDE or the
authoring tool – IDE or the authoring tool – IDE is
used for composing Flash content and is extensively used by the
Flash developers. It is responsible for maintaining the FLA
files, which are used for creating SWFs.
What are
the advantages of using Flash ?
Incorporating Flash has a lot of advantages. Let’s take a look
at them in a glance:
• It is a great tool with a whole lot of interactive contents
that are usually required for making successful computer or
video games.
• Almost all web hosts use Flash Player. So for a web version of
a game i.e. for playing a game online, almost 96 percent of the
players would not require to download anything except the game.
Moreover, installing arbitrary Active X controls or using a Java
plugin becomes extremely difficult to for most of the users;
Flash is preinstalled (mostly) with Windows on all the corporate
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• Flash gives the option where a
full game can be easily converted into a web version, or in the
other way, a web version to a completely downloadable game with
great ease.
• It is almost free. There is a nominal cost attached for the
authoring tool, Flash IDE, but is practically free for
distribution. It also includes the royalty-free licenses for
decoders like MP3 and Sorenson Spark.
• Due to the wide spread popularity, it is easy to find artists
or professionals for creating art or animations for the Flash
Player.
• Flash has a huge community with a soaring market. If you need
information or guidance, there are thousands of websites that
offer tutorials on Flash with relevant articles, opinions and
discussions. Besides, lots of Flash add-ons and components are
available for sale.
What is the Adobe Flash Player ?
Adobe Flash is perhaps one of the most ‘heard’ terms in the
world of Internet. So, what is Adobe Flash Player? It is one of
the most commonly circulated multimedia and application player
that is fashioned and distributed by Macromedia, which is a
division of the Adobe Systems. This popular application runs on
SWF files that can be created by the Adobe Flash authoring tool,
Adobe Flex or some other Macromedia and third party tools.
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Both Flash and Adobe Flash are
multimedia authoring programs where the latter is created and
circulated by Adobe. Adobe Flash uses ActionScript, an original
scripting language, vector and raster graphics and bidirectional
streaming of both audio and video. Though, in the real sense,
Adobe Flash is the ‘boss’ that is the governing environment and
Flash Player is just the machine that is needed for the smooth
running of the Flash files, today they have almost become
synonymous in the colloquial language. So, now when we refer to
the term ‘Flash’, it can mean any of the three things – either
the player or the authoring tool or the file format.
As mentioned in my previous paragraph, Flash player uses the
embedded scripting language ActionScript (or AS as it is
commonly called) which is founded on ECMAScript. ActionScript
has gone through lot of modifications and changes since it was
first introduced (it has come a long way – from a script without
variables to one which supports object oriented code) and today
this highly flexible and capable language can compete with the
very popular and well known JavaScript, which is one more ECMA
based scripting language. |
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The whole idea behind the birth of
the Flash Player was to show a 2 dimensional vector animation.
However, its rich features made it suitable for creating very
high end Internet based applications along with streaming audio
and video. Today, it makes use of vector graphics that makes the
file size smaller and also creates new files that save bandwidth
and loading time. Flash now can be seen almost everywhere – in
games, various cartoons and animations and GUIs engrafted into
web pages.
Most of the modern day browsers like Internet Explorer
(Microsoft), Opera and Mozilla Firefox are compatible with the
Flash Player.
What platforms are supported by
Flash ?
• The current version of Flash Player, Version 9 is compatible
with Microsoft Windows, 98 and above, Linux (x86) and Mac OS X.
• The popular, Version 7 (the latest official version) is
compatible with Pocket PC, Solaris, Microsoft Windows 95 & NT
and Mac OS.
• Version 6 of the Flash Player is available for HP-UX.
• The very well known Leap Frog Enterprises offers the Flash
Player with their Leapster Multimedia Learning System and also
provides a touch screen support to the users.
• More recently, Sony has incorporated the Flash Player Version
6 into the Playstation Portable’s web browser through firmware
version 2.70.
• The Nokia N series, N800 and Nokia 770 uses Flash player in
their systems.
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Article Contributed By: Sukanaya
Banerjee
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