
Flash is dead, long live OpenFL - lelf
http://gamasutra.com/blogs/LarsDoucet/20140318/213407/Flash_is_dead_long_live_OpenFL.php
======
slacka
For those not familiar with OpenFL, /u/larsiusprime posted a nice summary of
how it's used:

"OpenFL is is a programming API that mirrors the Flash API, but in the Haxe
language. So you take your old ActionScript code and port it over to Haxe
(very similar language, but with additional features). Then you also take your
Flash-vector-art SWF files, and you load it with the Haxe SWF library. OpenFL
ensures you can still make all the same method calls to the Flash API, etc.

When you compile, you select one of many targets, kinda like unity: C++,
JavaScript, etc. It conveniently packages those targets up into special
configurations like "Android", "Windows", "HTML5", "Linux", etc.

So you can take your existing flash code and art, but get it running NATIVELY,
in say, Linux desktop, with no need for the flash plugin or AIR runtime --
it's just a C++ app that does the same stuff (and much faster!)

You can also output to HTML5 so your players don't need the flash plugin
anymore (the HTML5 target is still fairly new). As an end user, there's
nothing for you to really do, except to wait for flash developers to switch
over to it. From your perspective, all you'll really see is that instead of
Flash apps on the web, there's more HTML5 apps. And instead of AIR apps for
games on the desktop, they're natively compiled for Linux. What happened in
these cases is that the developers were using Flash before but switched to
OpenFL."

~~~
tbrock
So basically, the open source community made a better flash than Adobe did?
That is rather amazing considering the resources of the respective groups.

~~~
IanCal
They've done it twice. MotionTwin did a lot of work in AS2 so they built a
better compiler for it (MTASC), which compiled faster and made faster swfs
(it's still used in production at the BBC).

Then when AS3 came out they seem to have thought "Oh come on!" given the
quality of the compiler and language features so they built a better language.
Again, faster and better compilation, as well as properly implemented things
like generics (particularly compared to the awful implementation in AS3).

It's a lovely little language, and cross compiles to a vast range of platforms
with ease. I built an android app which ran a webserver to control a TV app
built in it (compiled to JS). I also had good success compiling it to PHP
(cross-platform serialisation & deserialisation turned out to be easier and
more performant than parsing XML on some low power devices).

MotionTwin made my working day so much better, not having to use the CS4 was
wonderful.

~~~
mahmud
Actually, HaXe, Neko, mtasc and MotionTwin projects of one person: Nicolas
Cannasse. Dude is a legend, and community surrounding those projects is
amazing.

------
TomGullen
> I could try HTML5, but that precludes releasing high-performance desktop-
> ready games for Steam.

We develop Construct 2 ([https://www.scirra.com](https://www.scirra.com))
which is an HTML5 game engine. It can export to EXE via Node Webkit with very
good performance, as well as the ability to export a multitude of mobile
platforms as well.

One game we're excited to see released in the near future made in Construct 2
is "Penelope":
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaynOYy2O54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaynOYy2O54)

The author is developing this game in Construct 2 for PC/Mac/Linux.

Some of our users have also submitted their games to Greenlight, here's a
couple:

[http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=184459...](http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=184459148)

[http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=929949...](http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=92994975&searchtext=)

These are all HTML5 games!

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
Another example is ImpactJS, which allows you to write high-performance
_mobile-ready_ games!

[http://impactjs.com/](http://impactjs.com/)

~~~
phoboslab
It always makes me happy to see my game engine mentioned here. Thank you! :)

Just to chime in, I believe that HTML5 currently is as "cross-platform" as it
can get, especially for games. Two examples made with Impact:

\- Olympia Rising[1] - this game recently had a successful kickstarter
campaign and will be released for various desktop platforms and maybe more
later.

\- XType Plus[2] - my own game coming to the Nintendo Wii U, using the
Nintendo Web Framework. It's a pimped up version of this XType[3], which you
can play in your browser right now.

[1] [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paleozoic/olympia-
risin...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paleozoic/olympia-rising)

[2]
[http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2014/02/developer_interview...](http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2014/02/developer_interview_phoboslab_on_xtype_plus_impact_and_why_the_nintendo_web_framework_matters)

[3] [http://phoboslab.org/xtype/](http://phoboslab.org/xtype/)

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
Actually, there's something I'd like to ask you re: that. Is there any chance
of Ejecta being ported to other mobile platforms, Android in particular?

~~~
phoboslab
(Edit: for those unfamiliar with Ejecta:
[http://impactjs.com/Ejecta](http://impactjs.com/Ejecta) )

I do have a toy project that aims to be a cross-platform Ejecta eventually.
It's written in C and divided in an OpenGL Canvas drawing library (so you
essentially get the HTML5 Canvas API in native code) and a host application
that provides the JavaScript binding.

Currently, there's only a host application for iOS. I don't know much about
Android and have yet to figure out how to best couple the C lib with the Java
code... or if I even need Java code to begin with.

I wanted to have a working Android host app first, before putting it on github
and then building up the feature set on both platforms to where Ejecta is now.

I also thought about doing a kickstarter for this, but I'm not sure what
exactly I could "sell", because the I want to have it open source anyway. If
anybody wants to sponsor the development, get in touch :)

tl;dr: yes.

~~~
AshleysBrain
I wouldn't bother - Crosswalk does the job great for Android:

[https://crosswalk-project.org/](https://crosswalk-project.org/)

It's based on Chrome for Android so you have a fully-featured browser engine
available. iOS is the only platform where there isn't a good GPU-accelerated
browser engine available that can run native apps, hence the use case. (P.S.
we hope to support Ejecta in Construct 2 officially soon!)

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
Wait, Chrome? With its horribly slow 2D acceleration and aliasing? Why would
you want that for your game?

~~~
AshleysBrain
Chrome for Android has GPU-accelerated 2D canvas and WebGL support now, and
it's great for browser games! Probably the best mobile browser in fact.

------
ChrisGaudreau
I remember using OpenFL a year ago or so. Probably less. The coding
environment itself was very nice. But it was horribly painful in practice.
Sure, you can compile to multiple targets, but don't expect it to work. And if
it does work, chances are your code is littered with platform-specific macros
and reams of platform-specific code.

To make it worse, many parts of the Flash API weren't implemented, had
different semantics, didn't work on some platforms, or worked differently on
some platforms.

I like the idea of OpenFL and I like the Haxe programming language. When I
tried it, it was clear that things were improving quickly. I hope it has
improved a lot since then.

~~~
bendmorris
I've been working with Haxe and OpenFL for about a year and a half. A year ago
I would've agreed with you, but the past year has seen some major advancement
in all of these areas. The Flash API is more fleshed out at this point. Setup
still has some quirks but I find that once that's taken care of, compiling for
multiple platforms "just works" and is incredibly convenient. For example,
OpenFL will actually download and install the Android SDK and NDK for you,
then compile your application and sign the APK with a single command. The most
popular game engines (HaxePunk or HaxeFlixel) are great at smoothing over some
of the platform-specific differences in things like rendering. It's not a
magic bullet and you still need to have a basic understanding of each platform
you want to target, but Haxe and OpenFL make things so much easier.

------
zacharypinter
> I've been a stalwart Flash developer for 15 years, so nothing bothers me
> more than greatly exaggerated reports of Flash's premature demise.

...

> I've learned my lesson -- whatever my next platform is, no-one should be
> able to take it away from me.

There's an interesting side discussion here. It seems to me that the rate of
substantial changes in technology/frameworks/ui design/etc is increasing such
that the expectation of finding a platform that you can hold on to for 15
years is becoming untenable.

I worked with Flash (via Flex) for several years and found it to be one of the
best UI frameworks I've ever developed with. I have yet to find an web
framework that matches the productivity of MXML and databinding for standard
sorts of UI's.

I also use emacs daily, which is a piece of software that's older than I am
and still going strong.

That said, when it comes to staying on top of technology rather than being
made obsolete by it, I have yet to find a better strategy than to try to "ride
the wave".

HTML5 addresses a lot of cross-platform issues and has a lot of attention
today so it's worth learning, but I don't expect what I learn today to last
forever. If/when VR takes off, we might all be focusing on 3D frameworks and a
wealth of new UI primitives to support that ecosystem. Or, maybe some other
technology will take the dev community by storm and it'll be worth going that
direction.

In short: moving with the major paradigm shifts seems more tenable than trying
to find/predict the stack that will last the longest. Very curious to hear if
others have similar or alternative thoughts.

~~~
alecsmart1
Flash did what any other technology is still unable to do (maybe with the
exception of java)- offer a true cross platform solution. Look at webrtc. Its
been over a year now since the hype and we still don't have support in half
the browsers. Till date no technology does audio/video chat as well as Flash.

~~~
AdrianRossouw
open platforms are a long term investment.

------
sdfjkl
It's not Flash that is dead, it's the whole concept of browser plugins. Too
risky, too inconvenient, too often installed and then forgotten, never to
receive security updates (or those that exist aren't installed because they
prompt us about it far too often).

~~~
leccine
This is exactly why security conscious people don't use flash. Html is
supposed to be a document and not an application. We created this Frankenstein
with Flash, Java and JS to make HTML pages appear other than documents. The
net result is that you need to install these plugins otherwise you can't get
the full experience. The real question is why do we let people to abuse
technology instead of using it well. I have disabled all of these plugins long
time ago and also JS runs on very specific websites where it is an absolute
must. You could install games through the browser, make it easier but to run
through the browser, it is a bad idea.

~~~
mercer
> The real question is why do we let people to abuse technology instead of
> using it well.

I am (still!) amazed by the gap between how I see a computer and how most non-
geeks around me do. To them, it's like a set of different, often frustrating
tools rather than, well, an amazing piece of technology that can be prodded to
do whatever you want (to the point where an iPad with few to no apps can
provide them with all they need).

To me, there's a joy to finding just the right framework, app, or library that
can do what I need done. To the point where I might end up enjoying the
process a bit too much and get nothing done. To them, it's all about getting
stuff done as soon as possible, with whatever they're familiar with. And since
they find computers often quite frustrating, they will abuse the hell out of
the little bits they know.

And so, in the same way that we would use a lighter to open a bottle if there
isn't an opener nearby, they 'abuse' technology by using Excel for everything,
or storing their notes in an open notepad window without saving. And as long
as that works most of the time, they feel absolutely no incentive to figure
out a better way.

Until, of course, it all goes wrong. Then they call us to fix it :-).

~~~
nnq
Jobs had his famous 'computers as bicycles for the mind' metaphor (I guess
this is the origin:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA_jypfKfAA](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA_jypfKfAA)),
and this is how we geeks see them.

The problems are that:

1\. computers today don't really look or feel like 'bicycles for the mind' to
the average joe -- it's our job to make them look like what they really are
instead of dressing them in pretty silky dresses (think all the iStuff...) OR,
even worse, make them look like appliances (think the iOS devices that feel
like a multi-tool, every app isolated by itself and very hard to move data
from one to another) OR, even worse, cripple them on purpose (DRM, closed
formats that are not cross-applicatin compatible etc.)

2\. most people's minds are really bad at 'learning to ride bicycles'... hell,
even teaching a human being to properly read and write takes a few good years
-- so it's our jobs to make the bicycles easier to ride, but we should not
forget the danger here: the way to make a bicycle easier to ride is not to
hide that it's a bike! (this is kind of what we do with most of our UI/X
paradigms, and it makes it easier for people to use computers as appliances,
but much harder for them to realize they are mind-bikes)

Now that we have "a computer in everyone's pocket" we should get our heads out
of our asses and show people _what a computer really is!_

And about 'using Excel for everything': I'd take this as a good thing! Excel
is almost a goddamn programming language after all (and a functional one,
btw), and it'as close as most will ever be to real programming.

~~~
TheZenPsycho
I see this kind of sentiment on Hacker News a lot. I kind of feel like, if you
really want to express this thought process, I'd like you to suitably justify
that this argument isn't just a smokescreen, disguising your resentment that
more people than ever can learn to use and enjoy computers and you're not
quite so special anymore.

So you make up this story that what they are doing is not _really_ using
computers. It's not the same kind of wonderful magic that you can do. And
while you say "Now that we have "a computer in everyone's pocket" we should
get our heads out of our asses and show people what a computer really is!"

Well what if that actually happened! what if computer/coding/programming
literacy really did become as widespread as reading,writing and arithmetic.
There'd be nothing special about you anymore! So you fight the future. you
fight the "Fancy UIs" while saying you're not!

Okay maybe none of this applies to YOU specifically. My point is, if you're
going to embark along this argument, I think you should really make an effort
to prove your true dedication to it. Prove it's not just an expression of a
deeper insecurity.

------
aiurtourist
> OpenFL is an implementation of the Flash API written in the Haxe programming
> language.

Other than "Papers Please," who is using Haxe for production (i.e., making
money on products built with it), and for what?

~~~
larsiusprime
1) Nickelodeon (using Flambe) -- web/mobile games

2) Disney (using Flambe) -- web/mobile games

3) Flambe (Haxe game engine)

4) reach3DX (next-gen 3D engine by Gamebryo)

5) Defender's Quest 2 (me) (HaxeFlixel engine)

6) Even the Ocean (Anodyne devs) (HaxeFlixel engine)

7) Rymdkapsel (Grapefrukt games)

8) Cardinal Quest II -- web/mobile (HaxeFlixel engine)

9) TiVo -- interface stuff I guess?

10) Tizen

11) Firefox OS -- just partnered with Flambe

12) Stencyl (Haxe game engine)

13) Motion-Twin (game studio that created Haxe)

14) Shiro Games (EvoLand devs)

That's just off the top of my head. So anyone using
HaxeFlixel/HaxePunk/reach3dx/Flambe/OpenFL/Stencyl are all using Haxe-based
game engines.

~~~
clemos
We made a cross-platform (Flash, HTML5, Android, iOS) video player for TF1
(first French TV channel, considered the most viewed TV channel in Europe)

------
camus2
Flash is the plateform and the IDE, and nothing will replace the IDE regarding
how easy to create and organise animations.

Sure,you can code in a text editor, But a designer cant do precise and complex
animations with a text editor.

Editing and creating animations are 50% of the value of Flash and that's why
the IDE is still necessary to develop games, wether they are HTML5 or mobile
ones. Yes there is Unity but Unity is 1/ more expensive than flash 2/ sucks at
2d asset creation.

So no, Flash isnt dead,by a long shot.

~~~
thefreeman
Did you even read the article? _you can keep using the Flash authoring tool
and its native flash vector animations if you like_

And the "dead" from the title refers to support from Adobe. The entire post is
about how you can still target flash using OpenFL, haxe, etc.

------
teach
I must correct a minor error: "[Unity3D's] web browser target depends on a
clunky plugin with a low install base."

This is no longer true. Unity3D can now (or very soon?) export to pure
javascript and run in any WebGL-conformant browser without any plugins.

~~~
larsiusprime
To be fair, they announced that a day after the article was written :) And the
feature is not yet released. I can update the article in a bit.

------
cpeterso
If you would like to see how Mozilla's Shumway SWF player is coming along, you
can preview Shumway-rendered Flash content without installing the Shumway add-
on in this gallery. Even works in Chrome and Safari. :)

[http://www.areweflashyet.com/shumway/gallery/](http://www.areweflashyet.com/shumway/gallery/)

~~~
cyborgx7
Well, this is new. This just logged me out of my Ubuntu session. It didn't
restart, I just had to log in again.

~~~
fuzzix
Probably an X crash.

------
npsimons
I like haXe, I really do, but for me, it's seriously lacking in libraries.
It's all well and good to have everything you need to make games and displace
Flash (everywhere!), but for instance, I can't just clone a GPX parser
([https://github.com/tkrajina/gpxpy](https://github.com/tkrajina/gpxpy)), pull
in some other Python mapping stuff ([http://sensitivecities.com/so-youd-like-
to-make-a-map-using-...](http://sensitivecities.com/so-youd-like-to-make-a-
map-using-python-EN.html)) and frontend it with another cross platform
"language" ([http://kivy.org/](http://kivy.org/)).

Big thanks and congratulations to the haXe developers, and I'll keep an eye on
it with high hopes the library will expand!

~~~
waneck
With Haxe/Java and Haxe/C# you can use any Java or C# library directly from
haxe (with -net-lib and -java-lib)

------
ambirex
I've been following OpenFL/NME for about a year, I was surprised when reading
[http://www.openfl.org/blog/2014/03/18/flash-and-
html5/](http://www.openfl.org/blog/2014/03/18/flash-and-html5/) that pixi.js
is based off the Flash API.

------
perturbation
From the default linux install script for OpenFL
([http://www.openfl.org/haxe-3.1.1-linux-
installer.tar.gz](http://www.openfl.org/haxe-3.1.1-linux-installer.tar.gz)):

# Set up haxelib

    
    
                    sudo mkdir -p /usr/lib/haxe/lib
                    sudo chmod -R 777 /usr/lib/haxe/lib
                    sudo haxelib setup /usr/lib/haxe/lib
    

This isn't as bad as I originally thought; I tested this, and only that
directory itself is world-writable (the sub-directories from haxe install foo
are universally readable and executable, but not writable). Still seems like
someone could install a malicious 'dependency' ahead of someone else needing
it.

~~~
e12e
Oh, I remember seeing this last time I looked at this. I generally don't like
seeing sudo/su in a script like this at all -- and especially not something
that goes an messes with LSB-locations like /usr/lib.

FWIW, the actual software is download by the script, eg:
[http://haxe.org/file/haxe-3.1.1-linux64.tar.gz](http://haxe.org/file/haxe-3.1.1-linux64.tar.gz)

For something that is aimed at developers, one would think this stuff
installed under /usr/local or /opt (benefit of /usr/local is that most(?)
distributions set up PATH,MANPATH, various link/library paths etc to include
/usr/local. Benefit of /opt is keeping the package well "out of the way".

World writeable directories without a sticky-bit is generally just wrong --
under /usr/lib it's pretty terrible.

------
girvo
Finally. I have loved using Flash for game development back when it was owned
by Macromedia, and with AS3 it's still got a powerful API, but at the end of
the day having an open-source implementation to work from is far nicer. It
helps that Haxe is really cool, too.

------
dsirijus
A link to a discussion including industry insiders. [1]

I made this [2] with Haxe/OpenFL (NME) a year ago (W.I.P. that's gathering
dust now). Music's not mine, just stand-in from awesome Hotline: Miami. Didn't
have much luck in trying to get this to run on mobiles.

[1] [http://forum.starling-framework.org/topic/flash-is-dead-
long...](http://forum.starling-framework.org/topic/flash-is-dead-long-live-
openfl)

[2]
[https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/48356497/vizard/index.ht...](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/48356497/vizard/index.html)

------
laureny
Flash will be dead when web game companies (e.g. Zynga) stop using it.

It's still years away.

~~~
erichurkman
At least one major component is moving off of Flash: videos.

Now, if you opt to forgo Flash on your device, the most you seem to miss are
some games and annoying banner ads.

~~~
ojii
Unfortunately, as far as I know there's still no decent solution to stream
video without flash (I'm talking Twitch et al here). Twitch is the only reason
I still have flash on my computer (and not actually for watching games being
streamed, but for the annual Desertbus event).

Has the HTML5 video streaming improved at all over the past year?

~~~
ANTSANTS
I also kept Flash around mainly for this reason. It doesn't help people that
want to make streaming video sites, but you don't need Flash to watch live
video streams from sites like twitch.tv. You just need a media player capable
of playing streaming video (mpc-hc, mpv, and vlc all work), and the
livestreamer command line tool which extracts direct video stream URLs from
twitch.tv pages.

[http://livestreamer.readthedocs.org/](http://livestreamer.readthedocs.org/)

This works perfectly for me, arguably better than the Flash-based player. I
uninstalled Flash a few months ago and haven't felt the need since.

~~~
ojii
I am aware of the VLC workaround. But I like Twitch enough that I'll actually
watch their ads, as I think they're reasonably placed etc. So until they're
implementing a flash-free solution (and I'm sure they're interested in doing
so), I'll just keep flash around for them.

------
PhasmaFelis
> _I could try HTML5, but that precludes releasing high-performance desktop-
> ready games for Steam._

Oh Jesus Christ. _Do not do this._ "Flash" and "high-performance" do not ever
belong in the same sentence. Binding of Isaac was a game that, visually, could
have run on a Super Nintendo, but it chugged like a tired tortoise on a
midrange 2010 laptop. I know Flash is popular, I know it's easy to develop
with, but if you use it for "high-performance" game design you are cutting out
a huge potential audience of low-end users, because it is miserably slow and
inefficient. I should not need cutting-edge hardware to run a simple 2D game.

Edit: For vector games, at least. Raster games made with Flixel seem to run
all right. But Flash's native vector implementation is Godawful and deserves
to die.

~~~
larsiusprime
Did you read the article?

~~~
PhasmaFelis
I did. I may not have been clear, though. He says HTML5 is a poor substitute
for Flash because it doesn't work for "high-performance desktop-ready games
for Steam." I'm saying that Flash has _never_ been any good for "high-
performance desktop-ready games," and devs really, really need to stop
deluding themselves that it is.

Basically I'm saying I have trouble trusting anyone who thinks that Flash was
ever a decent high-performance gaming engine.

~~~
larsiusprime
I get that. (I wrote the article by the way).

"I have trouble trusting anyone who thinks that Flash was ever a decent high-
performance gaming engine"

I never said it was -- just that if I have to switch to something anyways,
performance is something I want to take into account.

And for what it's worth, flash wasn't _high_ performance, but with proper
optimization you could get _acceptable_ performance -- and in the case of our
game[1] locking ourselves to 800x600, we got way, way, better framerates and
sprite counts than Binding of Isaac (which uses AS2 and unoptimized graphics).

Perhaps I should have been more clear in the article -- "As long as I'm
leaving flash behind, I don't want to jump straight over to something else
that might have the same performance concerns I've been fighting/hacking
against all these years."

[1][http://store.steampowered.com/app/218410/](http://store.steampowered.com/app/218410/)

~~~
PhasmaFelis
That makes more sense, then. I've been burned a couple of times buying games
on Steam by devs who thought Flash was good enough for pro development. (IIRC,
both of them either got or are getting a non-Flash remake.) And I've been
frustrated by the slowness of Flash web games pretty much since it was
launched, until just a few years ago when I was able to afford high-end gaming
rigs. So it's a hot button for me.

------
Macuyiko
Every time I read an article about Haxe (and now, OpenFL), I get the itch to
start working on a mobile game--just as a hobby project.

That said, does anyone know how well-suited these frameworks are for regular
application development (or whether there exists alternatives)? I've been
thinking about wipping up a mobile app, and while I could write the Android
code, my knowledge of Objective-C is so limited at the moment that I'd like to
avoid duplicating the same logic in another environment/language...

~~~
Egregore
There are two UI libraries for openfl, HaxeUI and Stablex:

[http://haxeui.org/](http://haxeui.org/)

[https://github.com/RealyUniqueName/StablexUI](https://github.com/RealyUniqueName/StablexUI)

btw: There is Objective C target in haxe, so you can develop native apps for
iOS in Haxe.

------
thatnodeguy
The problem with flash is the same problem as the .Net framework, Coldfusion
and similar technologies.

You cannot have an entire ecosystem revolve around a single company and not
have growth or compatibility problems. You simply can't.

What flourishes? Things like Linux, Python, etc because they can be flexible
and adaptable. When you have a company in charge of a technology you will
always be at the whim of that company and what they decide to do with it.

------
davidgerard
Flash is _animation software_. That people write games in it is a function of
its past ubiquity and a symptom of the dangers of Turing completeness.
Actually coding in Flash is _unbelievably horrible_. This is like an
announcement of a well-supported cross-platform Brainfuck kit.

~~~
egypturnash
Flash has not been able to decide if it's animation software or a software
platform for pretty much the entire time I've used it. When I was doing web
animation back in 2000, Macromedia's response to complaints about the editor
crashing like crazy when dealing with the ~20M source files involved in making
3-4 minute cartoons was basically "don't use it for that, it's for making
little interactive widgets".

Oh yeah, and animating in Flash is often pretty horrible too.

------
fritz_vd
Awesome overview. It's fairly easy to start with. Especially for 2D game. It
compiles to JS as well fairly painlessly. Some difficulties occur when your
start using oldschool Flash stuff such as "BitmapData" etc. Or fonts. But
other than that it's pretty great.

------
chris_wot
Looks like Adobe are about to lose a key asset through management
incompetence. The Xerox of our time?

------
malkia
Wow! And no mention of scaleform - the Flash MiddleWare for consoles...
humm... -
[http://gameware.autodesk.com/scaleform](http://gameware.autodesk.com/scaleform)

------
Steveism
Chrome still has Flash Player built-in and that won't change any time soon. I
think once Chrome and YouTube completely move on it'll be a major development
in Flash taking a back seat.

------
chumpski
Well done larsiusprime. Great article. You have me very interested in trying
out Haxe and Lime, maybe OpenFL as well.

------
mavdi
As an ex Flash developer all I can say is this: Stick with open source and
find an up facing trend.

BTW fuck Adobe.

------
GimbalLock
"X is dead, long live Y" is dead, long live original headlines.

------
anon4
So what I got from that is that Haxe is a statically typed javascript with
actual honest-to-god macros. Married to a trivially simple 2D graphics and
audio framework, that thousands of developers are already familiar with.

That's awesome!

~~~
jdonaldson
I echo your enthusiasm, but haxe is not really statically typed javascript any
more than java is. It's also not really married to any framework, OpenFl just
happens to be one of the most popular ones right now. Most 2d apis are
trivially simple these days. OpenFL doesn't leave anything out there at least.
If you're interested in more sophisticated 3d support, OpenFL provides a
surprising level of functionality there, including recently announced support
for stereoscopic 3d.

~~~
larsiusprime
There's also a bunch of other backends if you want something besides OpenFL --
there's h3d, kha engine, Flambe, etc.

------
mantrax
Well, the first half of the title is right.

------
SimeVidas
Hey, guy who wrote that article. The Web Platform is going to become the
dominant platform for games and performance is going to be just fine. Wanna
bet? :-P

~~~
larsiusprime
I agree. Did you read the article?

