Audry Taylor wrote:
I figure the experts could help me on this one. When you create an
interactive Flash file, is it automatically compatible with different
platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux) so long as the user has installed Flash
or does it take extra scripting or something special to make it work
across platforms?
Also, what about working on a foreign machine? Can people in Japan or
China, for example, play Flash games made in English in the U.S.?
The answer generally is "yes", here.
One way to think about it is that the Adobe Flash Player is a "virtual
machine" which works the same no matter what environment it's built
atop. WWW browsers do this for HTML, where you can see a document
regardless of which browser you use. WWW browsers may not be identical
when you get to advanced display or interactivity, but for basic
document work they abstract away the underlying platform differences.
The Adobe Flash Player offers a higher level of functionality in its
virtualization.
The biggest differences are in Player versioning. The Windows and
regular Macintosh versions for Flash Player 9 were finished first, and
once these were proven in the field the other ports began --
Macintosh/Intel Player entered distribution a month or two ago, Linux
Player is expect in public beta later this year with final delivery
early next year -- mobile devices will probably take awhile to get to
Flash 9 level. Generally, though, any device which plays a SWF6 file or
SWF7 file or whatever will play them the same.
Languages and cultures introduce different complexity. Many games are
international, with little emphasis on language or cultural referents.
If you've got a text-heavy presentation then support for multiple
languages, or others who cannot read English well, would become
important. But when you're delivering to a global audience you also have
to consider colors, gestures, the types of ways people spend their
time... there are lots of soft angles to consider for
internationalization. The Flash Player Virtual Machine doesn't get in
the way of that, though... it'll play content the same in Paris as it
would in Kyoto or Guilin.
Good...?
jd
--
John Dowdell . Adobe Developer Support . San Francisco CA USA
Weblog: http://weblogs.macromedia.com/jd
Aggregator: http://weblogs.macromedia.com/mxna
Technotes: http://www.macromedia.com/support/
Spam killed my private email -- public record is best, thanks.
_______________________________________________
[email protected]
To change your subscription options or search the archive:
http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
Brought to you by Fig Leaf Software
Premier Authorized Adobe Consulting and Training
http://www.figleaf.com
http://training.figleaf.com
