
Compile C/C++ to Flash - Adobe Alchemy - ed
http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/alchemy.html
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aaronblohowiak
The speed of coding in C with the execution speed of the Flash VM! Yes!

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jwilliams
Makes you wonder if there was another reason - e.g. they had an internal
reason to get c/c++ running on the VM - then they figured they might as well
open source it.

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cpr
I think that's one of their stated reasons.

Since they've stated they're heading for all Flash-based software in a few
years (no more desktop), they probably more or less have to port all their
apps to Flash. Ugh.

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icefox
Photoshop anyone? It is due for a re-write and it is in C/C++.

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PieSquared
A dream come true! Thank the lord! I can now have Clojure, running on the JVM,
running on the Flash VM!

Lisp has finally come to the internet scene. Beware, PHP, beware, Javascript!
Your time is over.

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palish
Yeah, it's just that simple. Game over, all you massively popular languages,
because _lisp has arrived_!

The primary reasons to use one programming language over another are its
libraries, its community (documentation, examples, etc), followed by its
expressive power. In other words, just because Lisp is so badass does not mean
it will dominate. That's like claiming that your new amazing EBay clone will
be a big hit. In both cases, you're fighting the massive inertia of huge
network effects.

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PieSquared
Well, Clojure has access to any JVM library. And thus has nice threading (as
well as a model of it's own, as I understand; I haven't used it that much.)
That's why it's getting so much attention.

Also, running a VM on a VM was definitely a joke. It'd be a horrible idea
beyond belief.

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cpr
Flash must die. Flash is evil. Flash is proprietary, and Adobe's key
technology to subvert the web and build their own proprietary OS.

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palish
What exactly is bad about any of that?

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allenbrunson
are you serious? they are trying to pull a microsoft, of course. i don't think
anybody needs to be told what's bad about _that_.

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palish
Wow, what a stuck-up response to a serious question.

My point is, market forces drive innovation. "Flash is proprietary" -- in what
possible way is that bad? Most of the luxuries of life are proprietary.
Humanity is better for having the concept of "proprietary".

Imagine how you'd feel if someone was saying, "Viaweb must die. Viaweb is
evil. Viaweb is proprietary.". It would sound rediculous. And yet, Viaweb was
a platform, just like Flash. So ask yourself, _why_ does that sound
rediculous? Could it be that there is some pent-up anger or frustration with
Adobe and Microsoft in particular, and that anger is distorting our ability to
look at the situation objectively? I don't know. I personally think Microsoft
has added a lot of real value over the years, and that the world is better
with them than without them.

Also, I don't like feeling as if I'm in a roomful of zealots. Please make
thoughtful continutions to Hacker News.

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allenbrunson
wow, what a snotty response to a serious reply.

if viaweb were acting as a mini-monopoly back in their day, then yes, i think
"viaweb must die" might have very well been heard at the time, and with good
reason.

adobe is showing every sign of desiring exactly the sort of monopoly with
flash that microsoft created with windows. given the damage that monopoly did
to the tech sector, i consider this something worth getting worked up over.

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palish
Sigh. I apologize. Really. I just haven't slept in 27 hours (and got only 5
hours then). Startup life. :)

Anyway, my reply was over the top. So thanks for the thoughtful followup in
the face of that.

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dhotson
The most interesting thing about this for me is that programming language
implementations could possibly be ported to the flash VM.

Anyone who has tried 'try ruby' knows what I'm talking about:
<http://tryruby.hobix.com/>

.. being able to experiment with interpreted languages (other than javascript)
in your browser could be kind of cool.

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juliend2
so will we see an objective-c framework for developing web applications
compiled for flash? Go Objective-C!

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tlrobinson
Have you seen Objective-J and Cappuccino? <http://cappuccino.org>

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juliend2
yup, and it looks great. Very very interesting technology.

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rcwhitejr
Doom was compiled into flash, So its got that going for it.

