Mono, allows you to target mobile platforms through static compilation of your code to native, for info, Mono is the runtime powering Unity and the Xamarin offering for application development.

Zynga created the appropriate bindings so that Stage3D can be used, which allows you to use libraries like Starling, Feathers with it and run your Stage3D code untouched, but don't expect to see the whole Flash runtime libraries to be there, but if you are a game developer, you should be all set. Also, by using PlayScript (AS3 on steroids) you can leverage additional types that the Mono runtime gives you that would also find in C#, like float, short, byte and more.

Cherry on top, Mono gives you access to multithreading, fast packaging times for mobile platforms, and native code integration. An experimental backend is also available to target JavaScript. But given that Mono relies on CIL behind the scenes, you could also probably hook that up with JSIL, another exciting project.

Anyway, go check it out. This is great stuff.

Adobe Scout: Profiling Taken to the Next Level - Monday 3:30 PM - 515B (link - http://tinyurl.com/c8xs9vf)

Description: Discover how you can perform advanced profiling of your Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR content across mobile and desktop. Profiling in Flash Player has been revolutionized, and Gavin Peacock and Thibault Imbert from the Adobe Scout team are your guides to the latest innovations. Join us for a deep dive into next-generation profiling.

This session will include:

• Introduction to Adobe Scout and its potential uses
• Technical demonstration on how to use the tool to profile both desktop and mobile content
• Best practices and tips

We will also unveil some of the new features coming in Scout in the future. You cannot miss this session if you care about performance analysis!

HTML5 for ActionScript 3.0 developers - Monday 5:00 PM - 510 (link - http://tinyurl.com/cx4mkjq)

Description: Have you been developing content with ActionScript 3.0 for years and want to take a look at JavaScript? Join Thibault Imbert for a deep dive into JavaScript and HTML5 and discover how they are different from ActionScript 3.0. This session will review the major capabilities available in Adobe Flash Player and AIR and demonstrate the equivalents using web standards.

I will cover:

• Differences and similarities between JavaScript and ActionScript 3.0
• An overview of browser APIs and capabilities to power expressive content
• Profiling and performance optimizations

I will be sharing in this talk how to transition to HTML/JS from an interactive developer standpoint moving from AS3/C#/C++. I started working on a free ebook about this topic called "JavaScript for interactive developers", this session will be a sneak peek of  it.

I hope to see you there!

We are really happy to announce that we just updated the SWF (SWF19) and AMF3 specs with the latest information. I promised this to you guys a long time ago, this will give you the latest details if you are working with both formats. Some things were either missing inaccurate in both specs, so we fixed that. The AMF3 specification had some types missing like Vector and Dictionary that we introduced in Flash Player 10.

The SWF specification had some undocumented things like a new tag for Telemetry (Adobe Scout) and some other miscellaneous attributes that we now fully document.

You can find both specs at the following url:

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/swf.html

Michael

The article starts with an overview, then dives into details like how Flash Player instances work, the core components, ActionScript 3 event handling and how "core loop", the beating heart of the Flash Player works.

It does not stop there and also covers topics like rendering side and how the display list works but also the network stack and more. The article ends with general GPU related performance issues. A must read for every ActionScript 3 developer.

I read lots of digital books but I still enjoy reading stuff the old school way, I am sure you do too. Adobe ordered some hard copies that we will be able to distribute at some events. It feels great to physically hold it! For info, this printed version has the latest updates I added last month that I mentioned here.

I thought it would be cool to give a few free copies, if you want to have it or have colleagues that would be interested. The first twenty comments will receive a free copy. Just put your real email when commenting so that I can reach out to you They are all gone!

Have a good reading!

Here is the very simple code below, note that the API is now called readGraphicsData. You can download the full source code here:

package
{
	import flash.display.IGraphicsData;
	import flash.display.Sprite;
	import flash.events.Event;
	import flash.events.MouseEvent;
	
	[SWF(width="900", height="400", frameRate="30", backgroundColor="#FFFFFF")]
	public class TestGrabby extends Sprite
	{
		private var b:BigBilbo = new BigBilbo();
		private var v:Vector.<IGraphicsData>;
		private var result:Vector.<IGraphicsData>;
		private var copy:Sprite = new Sprite();
		private var inc:int;
		private var count:int;
		
		public function TestGrabby()
		{
			b.scaleX = b.scaleY = .7;
			copy.scaleX = copy.scaleY = .7;
			b.x = 240;
			b.y = 200;
			addChild( b );
			
			copy.x = 650;
			copy.y = 200;
			addChild ( copy );
			
			stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, onClick);
		}
		
		private function onClick(e:MouseEvent):void
		{	
			// reset
			inc = 0;
			stage.removeEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, onFrame);	
			copy.graphics.clear();
			
			// sample
			v = b.graphics.readGraphicsData(true);
			count = v.length;
			result = new Vector.<IGraphicsData>(count, true);
			stage.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, onFrame);	
		}
		
		private function onFrame (e:Event):void
		{
			if ( inc < count )
			{
				result[inc++] = v.shift();
				copy.graphics.drawGraphicsData(result);
			} else stage.removeEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, onFrame);
		}
	}
}

I hope you guys will like it!

Don't worry Tina, Flash Player 11.4 is doing ok, we are taking good care of it

Note that Angry Birds earlier this year (February 2012) was the first super popular game to use the Stage3D APIs through the use of the Starling framework.

We are super excited to see this new version also powered by Starling, have fun! See you on Tatooine.

As you know, to get full profiling working with Scout, the SWF needs to be enabled for profiling. So to make it quick, today there are three ways to enable your SWFs with Scout.

The first way, is by using Flash Builder 4.7 and use the Telemetry option in the ActionScript compiler tab in your ActionScript project properties:

The second way to enable your SWF, which most of you probably don't know is to use the -advanced-telemetry compiler argument when using ASC 2.0. This is useful if you are using a tool like Flash Develop or any others for instance.

As a reminder, ASC 2.0 is the new compiler for ActionScript that is provided inside the AIR SDK bundled with Flash Builder 4.7 and the Gaming SDK. The UI above in Flash Builder actually just does that and appends this string to the arguments passed to the ASC compiler:

-advanced-telemetry=true

Finally, the third way to do it, is by using the post processing script. Which is useful in a scenario where you don't want to recompile the SWF, or cannot, because you don't have the sources anymore. Or if you are using Flex, because the -advanced-telemetry argument is only available in ASC 2.0 and not MXMLC. In this scenario, you just process the SWF and inject the specific tag required. We have a little Python script for that available here.

But this script requires Python and we have seen people having issues with this, so recently Renaun created this little app called Scout Enabler, which is all AS3 based, so no dependencies at all and has a nice GUI on top:

I hope this clarifies things. We will integrate that in the Getting Started document for Adobe Scout, so that it is clear to everyone and easy to find.

We believe that communication is key to human development, and that learning the alphabet is a crucial part of this development. Learning to read and write a language demands experience of the alphabet. You must learn each letters individual form, phonetic sound and how it in combination with other letters form a word.

That’s why we created Spell Cubes!

Spell Cubes brings the phonetic sound to the alphabet cubes, and shows how letters form a word. Spell Cubes lets you create and manage words, in different languages, for your child to play with, and spell over and over. Spell Cubes is the toddlers first playful meeting with the phonetic alphabet and the preschoolers place to experience a fun way to learn to spell new words.

The application looks gorgeous and is powered by Starling and Feathers, download it for your iPad!