Re: [Flashcoders] If not Zinc, then what?
I always had this feeling Flash is not meant to be run for a long period of time - no one will interact with your Flash movie on browser for 24 hours continuously, so that's absolutely fine. But can anyone tell me if you have successfully developed 24/7 app using Flash wrapped in Zinc/SWFStudio/mProjector/Screenweaver without having issues such as memory leaks? Conversely I've started using a projector (screenweaver) for a 24/7 application because flash has a memory leak. The leak is simply that the garbage collector is not freeing everything, and it is easy to see it is the flash player's problem because minimizing then restoring the window *does* free up the memory. It happens with both Flash 7 and Flash 8 (only analyzed on windows XP). See flashcoder's Memory leak in Flash projector thread for more background (feb 25 2006 and mar 14-16 2006). I had two options: 1. Use a projector to a minimize then restore the window. 2. Start a 2nd application window, initially hidden, then when ready, close the 1st application window, then make the 2nd window visible. I needed a projector to be able to make the application hide/show itself and be hidden initially. The 2nd option is more complex but I chose it as then I can be sure it avoids any memory leaks that the minimize/restore trick does not; and because I was concerned about the desktop appearing briefly using the first option. (The PHP back-end was already controlling the creation of the flash front-end so I had much of the logic already there.) Darren ___ Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com 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
Re: [Flashcoders] If not Zinc, then what?
Well, I was probably being too harsh with major bugs, as I can't remember exactly what they were now (it was about 6 months ago I used it). I believe we had the same issue with building - having to reload SW first, but often when reloading it would fail because the process was still running in the background. Also, we had some issues with system dialog boxes, that they displayed multiple times. Anyway, I was somewhat naive as to what to expect of Projector applications, and as SW was quite new to Open Source, had a very small developer and user base, we thought it best to go to a third party. Regards, Grant Cox Darren Cook wrote: Support I can live without but I wondered what the major bugs were that you found? I've started using it on a project and was pleased with it. But my current usage is relatively simple. ___ Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com 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
RE: [Flashcoders] If not Zinc, then what?
I´m using an SWF Studio App 24/7 here at work (kind of XML news ticker/reader) and it works just fine. Regarding the whole discussion, I would recommend SWF Studio. It is realy stable and the developers are allways fast with their responds. They even did a custom implementation of a feature set free of charge for me/my client! The only big disadvantage is the lack of OSX support, but I´m sure it will be coming some time,... Regards, André -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kenneth Kawamoto Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2006 1:41 PM To: flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com Subject: [Flashcoders] If not Zinc, then what? Or it`s better run away from them and develop the tool using C# or something like that? I use Flash for creating apps delivered through web. I use Director for creating locally deployed app. I create some serious apps such as credit card processing touchscreen running 24/7, and Director does it well. I feel using Flash for such app development is like using screwdriver as hammer - sure you can use it, but if there is a better tool for the job. I always had this feeling Flash is not meant to be run for a long period of time - no one will interact with your Flash movie on browser for 24 hours continuously, so that's absolutely fine. But can anyone tell me if you have successfully developed 24/7 app using Flash wrapped in Zinc/SWFStudio/mProjector/Screenweaver without having issues such as memory leaks? Kenneth Kawamoto www.materiaprima.co.uk ___ Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com 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 ___ Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com 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
RE: [Flashcoders] If not Zinc, then what?
Have you used Zinc? How do you compare the two? Lee -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of André Goliath Sent: 29 March 2006 12:46 To: 'Flashcoders mailing list' Subject: RE: [Flashcoders] If not Zinc, then what? I´m using an SWF Studio App 24/7 here at work (kind of XML news ticker/reader) and it works just fine. Regarding the whole discussion, I would recommend SWF Studio. It is realy stable and the developers are allways fast with their responds. They even did a custom implementation of a feature set free of charge for me/my client! The only big disadvantage is the lack of OSX support, but I´m sure it will be coming some time,... Regards, André -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kenneth Kawamoto Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2006 1:41 PM To: flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com Subject: [Flashcoders] If not Zinc, then what? Or it`s better run away from them and develop the tool using C# or something like that? I use Flash for creating apps delivered through web. I use Director for creating locally deployed app. I create some serious apps such as credit card processing touchscreen running 24/7, and Director does it well. I feel using Flash for such app development is like using screwdriver as hammer - sure you can use it, but if there is a better tool for the job. I always had this feeling Flash is not meant to be run for a long period of time - no one will interact with your Flash movie on browser for 24 hours continuously, so that's absolutely fine. But can anyone tell me if you have successfully developed 24/7 app using Flash wrapped in Zinc/SWFStudio/mProjector/Screenweaver without having issues such as memory leaks? Kenneth Kawamoto www.materiaprima.co.uk ___ Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com 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 ___ Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com 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 ___ Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com 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
RE: [Flashcoders] If not Zinc, then what?
I use Flash with a C# backend for a kiosk system. It enables me to provide card scanning, coin mech, note reader, printer and database support. This system is run 24/7 and the only issues I get is to do with my C# coding relative to the odd network glitch... Other than that, it stands up to anything. Lee -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kenneth Kawamoto Sent: 29 March 2006 13:21 To: flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com Subject: [Flashcoders] If not Zinc, then what? I´m using an SWF Studio App 24/7 here at work (kind of XML news ticker/reader) and it works just fine. Hi André, Does your app have heavy user interaction? Does it have multimedia (audio and video)? Does it have multiple SWF modules rather than just one SWF? Is it full-screen app? If so and it's stable I'd look into SWF Studio (no OSX is bad though!) Kenneth Kawamoto www.materiaprima.co.uk ___ Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com 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 ___ Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com 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
Re: [Flashcoders] If not Zinc, then what?
On 3/29/06, Gene Jannece [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I've been reading pros and cons of using Zinc, I started to wonder what are the pros and cons of other projectors? Flash Magazine did a comparison of projectors. http://www.flashmagazine.com/1095 http://www.flashmagazine.com/1097 It's a little old now, but is a good starting point. Chris -- Chris Velevitch Manager - Sydney Flash Platform Developers Group www.flashdev.org.au ___ Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com 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
Re: [Flashcoders] If not Zinc, then what?
We just did our first application with a projector app like this. Thankfully the target was only for Windows 2000 and XP, but it needed to support nice transparency with non-rectangular windows. First I gave Screenweaver OS a go, but it has some major bugs, and almost no development (well, not on the version 3, apparently they are working hard on the beta version 4). After a couple of days we decided that we needed an application that could provide support. We looked at them all, and decided on Zinc, as it seemed to have the most active forums and developers (ie they respond to bug reports quickly), it was cross platform (thinking about future projects), and had a lot of features. Unfortunately we found that CPU usage was extreme - with an application approximately 800x600 it would use 65% of a 3.0GHz cpu just sitting there, and 100% cpu when there was any animation inside the window. This is due to the transparency - it was much better with a regular rectangular window. As our client found this unacceptable we moved to mProjector (at their recommendation). We found mProjector to make the smallest file size, and have the best CPU usage. Unfortunately their support is much slower - the forums are much less busy and the devs will take some days to respond to emails. They were in the process of releasing their new version at this time, so this may explain it (they are a much smaller operation than Zinc). Unfortunately we found there was a bug that would cause the application to crash sporadically (when loading external movies/data), and some two months after reporting this as a bug it was still on their todo list. Also transparency was fine in the Flash 7 build, but in Flash 8 was very patchy (I believe this has been fixed since). So, we had to move to Northcode SWF Studio. This was our last option, as we couldn't find any other Projector applications that had synchronous commands (and switching to asynchronous would be far too much work this late in the project). Northcode has fairly quiet forums, but their devs replied to every post at least once a day, and responded to emails within a day (with the timezone difference from Aus to Canada I thought that was pretty good). The downside is that their transparency support was fairly poor - the only reliable method for non-rectangular windows was to have 1bit transparency. They did provide me with a pre-release version with better transparency (which I believe has been released now), however this did have pretty much the same CPU issue as Zinc. So, overall: - Northcode (which we ended up going with) had the best support and least bugs. But did make the largest filesize. - Zinc has the most features, and the CPU issue appeared to just be Flash 8 - all three had ver poor CPU usage when using nice transparency in Flash 8. Medium filesize - mProjector had the smallest filesize, and with Flash 7 had the best CPU performance. The app/libraries had the least features (ie no cross platform, no screensavers, no support for standard rectangular windows). And at the end of it all, I have vowed to avoid working on any Projector applications like this again. They all seem like patchy solutions, and I guess that's why Macromedia never added more than basic fscommands to the standard Flash projectors. Regards, Grant Cox Chris Velevitch wrote: On 3/29/06, Gene Jannece [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I've been reading pros and cons of using Zinc, I started to wonder what are the pros and cons of other projectors? Flash Magazine did a comparison of projectors. http://www.flashmagazine.com/1095 http://www.flashmagazine.com/1097 It's a little old now, but is a good starting point. Chris -- Chris Velevitch Manager - Sydney Flash Platform Developers Group www.flashdev.org.au ___ Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com 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 ___ Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com 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
Re: [Flashcoders] If not Zinc, then what?
SWF Studio all the way. The customer support is amazing and the people who work there are both knowledgable and helpful- rare indeed. On 3/29/06, Gene Jannece [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I've been reading pros and cons of using Zinc, I started to wonder what are the pros and cons of other projectors? Flash Magazine did a comparison of projectors. http://www.flashmagazine.com/1095 http://www.flashmagazine.com/1097 It's a little old now, but is a good starting point. Chris -- Chris Velevitch Manager - Sydney Flash Platform Developers Group www.flashdev.org.au ___ Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com 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 ___ Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com 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
Re: [Flashcoders] If not Zinc, then what?
Hello, I`ll start with the development of a big application next week, and we need to use these projectors. I`ll be a commercial product, so i think that it`s very important that i take the right way on the beginning. What you thing guys, should i develop it that i can easily change between projectors? Or it`s better run away from them and develop the tool using C# or something like that? I never had problems with ZINC or SW till today, but now i have a really big project so i`m a bit afraid! These projectors are relly stable? Because i only build some small demo applications in-house, not for commercial use. Success testimonials are welcome! :-) Regards, Andre Nachtigall Tessmann On 3/29/06, John Grden [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Yeah I have to say, I've been using zinc for xray's wrapper and they were always very responsive to my requests on the forums. But admittedly, even I don't use the EXE version of Xray because of the memory and CPU issues. That being said, I felt like their support was very good and they seem like patient people ;) On 3/28/06, Grant Cox [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: We just did our first application with a projector app like this. Thankfully the target was only for Windows 2000 and XP, but it needed to support nice transparency with non-rectangular windows. First I gave Screenweaver OS a go, but it has some major bugs, and almost no development (well, not on the version 3, apparently they are working hard on the beta version 4). After a couple of days we decided that we needed an application that could provide support. We looked at them all, and decided on Zinc, as it seemed to have the most active forums and developers (ie they respond to bug reports quickly), it was cross platform (thinking about future projects), and had a lot of features. Unfortunately we found that CPU usage was extreme - with an application approximately 800x600 it would use 65% of a 3.0GHz cpu just sitting there, and 100% cpu when there was any animation inside the window. This is due to the transparency - it was much better with a regular rectangular window. As our client found this unacceptable we moved to mProjector (at their recommendation). We found mProjector to make the smallest file size, and have the best CPU usage. Unfortunately their support is much slower - the forums are much less busy and the devs will take some days to respond to emails. They were in the process of releasing their new version at this time, so this may explain it (they are a much smaller operation than Zinc). Unfortunately we found there was a bug that would cause the application to crash sporadically (when loading external movies/data), and some two months after reporting this as a bug it was still on their todo list. Also transparency was fine in the Flash 7 build, but in Flash 8 was very patchy (I believe this has been fixed since). So, we had to move to Northcode SWF Studio. This was our last option, as we couldn't find any other Projector applications that had synchronous commands (and switching to asynchronous would be far too much work this late in the project). Northcode has fairly quiet forums, but their devs replied to every post at least once a day, and responded to emails within a day (with the timezone difference from Aus to Canada I thought that was pretty good). The downside is that their transparency support was fairly poor - the only reliable method for non-rectangular windows was to have 1bit transparency. They did provide me with a pre-release version with better transparency (which I believe has been released now), however this did have pretty much the same CPU issue as Zinc. So, overall: - Northcode (which we ended up going with) had the best support and least bugs. But did make the largest filesize. - Zinc has the most features, and the CPU issue appeared to just be Flash 8 - all three had ver poor CPU usage when using nice transparency in Flash 8. Medium filesize - mProjector had the smallest filesize, and with Flash 7 had the best CPU performance. The app/libraries had the least features (ie no cross platform, no screensavers, no support for standard rectangular windows). And at the end of it all, I have vowed to avoid working on any Projector applications like this again. They all seem like patchy solutions, and I guess that's why Macromedia never added more than basic fscommands to the standard Flash projectors. Regards, Grant Cox Chris Velevitch wrote: On 3/29/06, Gene Jannece [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I've been reading pros and cons of using Zinc, I started to wonder what are the pros and cons of other projectors? Flash Magazine did a comparison of projectors. http://www.flashmagazine.com/1095 http://www.flashmagazine.com/1097 It's a little old now, but is a good starting point. Chris -- Chris
RE: [Flashcoders] If not Zinc, then what?
I agree, the swf studio support is just phenomenal. I have been using swf studio for over two years now and I never had any issues. It's just a great wrapper, which offers a lot of features. The pricing is very reasonable as well. It's not cross platform though. Robin -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, 29 March 2006 3:10 PM To: flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com Subject: Re: [Flashcoders] If not Zinc, then what? SWF Studio all the way. The customer support is amazing and the people who work there are both knowledgable and helpful- rare indeed. On 3/29/06, Gene Jannece [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I've been reading pros and cons of using Zinc, I started to wonder what are the pros and cons of other projectors? Flash Magazine did a comparison of projectors. http://www.flashmagazine.com/1095 http://www.flashmagazine.com/1097 It's a little old now, but is a good starting point. Chris -- Chris Velevitch Manager - Sydney Flash Platform Developers Group www.flashdev.org.au ___ Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com 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 ___ Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com 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 ___ Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com 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
