In an earlier post, I talked about several debuggers that work in the browser. Since Flash can be difficult to debug properly from the IDE, it is imperative that developers trace output while their app is running in a browser, and potentially loaded from the web site.

A recent post at http://broadcast.artificialcolors.com/index.php?m=20040401
shows that Flash ships with a debug player, which can be installed and configured to write output to a file. I tested this out and sure enough, it works. This means that without any thrid party dubugger, you can get the same valuable information that you normally see in the “output” window, but written to a file while the swf runs in the browser of choice.

I have been hearing a lot of people talking about AJAX lately. The acronym stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AJAX). In the simplest of terms, it allows a web page to update itself as your looking at it, without reloading the page. Sounds like something Flash can do, right? Hence the comparisons abound regarding AJAX as a replacement for Flash.

I am not going to choose sides, since I believe a well informed web developer should understand and use both technologies. I would like to think however, that Flash has capabilities that extend well beyond that of AJAX. Its also improtant to point out that AJAX is a methodology, and not a product that you can go buy from the local software store.

I just wanted to offer some clarification on the new buzz word “Platform”. When I read Cathy’s earlier post it sounded like a new product launch. While Flash 8 (code named 8-ball) is due out later this year, Flash Platform is simply a marketing spin on current technology. Macromedia is framing the way we look at Flash, so that it appears to be the cornerstone of all the rich media solutions that a company could possibly need.

Personally I applaud the marketing people for trying to position one of my favorite software products in this manner. Flash has always suffered from the perception that it is the cool animation you see on the splash page and nothing more. Many of us know better, but the corporate world sometimes misinterprets the scope of it’s capabilities. “Flash Platform” implies that the technology has grown up and become a foundation for rich internet applications. I agree.