Apr 8, 2008 0

Tween classes face off, winner gets prom queen

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Now more than ever, flash developers are dependent on outside source code for tweening. In as2, you could get away with using the built in tween class, but the as3 version has proved itself virtually unusable, especially in light of some of the alternatives.

There are a slew of good options out there: Tweener, TweenLite, TweenMax, Go, and more, all with similar feature sets. So which one’s the best?
We here at squidder have this debate often, with some devs who prefer Tweener and others who rely on TweenLite. Fortunately, there are others who have done the heavy lifting for us to give a numbers to numbers face-off.
My favorite point of comparison is the speed tester over at GreenSock. Although it was created by the author of TweenLite (so you could cry foul, I suppose, though it doesn’t seem like there’s any reason to), it seems to be the easiest way to quickly compare tweens in a real world situation.
For those of you interested in running your own test, you can roll over to the TweenBencher. Again, this is a tool created by one of the makers of a tween class (Go), but read that as you will. Regardless, the tool certainly puts out some good hard numbers.
Personally, I don’t think you can go wrong with TweenLite TweenMax, but one thing is for certain: they’re all better than the built-in tween classes.

Apr 6, 2008 0

ASDocs and Eclipse: BFF

Face it. Documentation is a total pain. Fortunately, generating it doesn’t have to be. And while projects like NaturalDocs make things a little easier (and cleaner) to work with, there’s nothing quite like a good ol’ Adobe style, frame loving, totally unorganized doc folder.

Seriously, though. Commenting for ASDocs is extremely easy and ultimately a great way to go if there’s even the slightest possibility that someone else might look at your code. Plus, it’s standard and has a lot of great benefits, like showing up in introspection for those of you developing in FDT 3. And, if you are developing flash/AS3 in Eclipse, it’s super easy to set up documentation generation at the click of a button. Screenshots and more after the jump.

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Apr 3, 2008 1

AS3 library for the wiimote + mac

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While the folks at wiiflash.org have done a great job of providing wii functionality in flash, there remains a large-ish gap when it comes to mac support.

That’s where MoteDaemon, an awesome project out of Berlin, comes in. Ultimately, the plan is to integrate the tiny server application with the wiiflash.org library, but it updates have been spotty at best. To fill the gap in the interim, however, we have developed an as3 library based on Sebastian’s javascript / as1/2 examples using the XMLSockets.
A very early version is available here and while we may not grow this library much beyond its current state — hopefully we’ll find a way to get into the wii flash library with a mac — you may find it handy (or at least fun).

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