5 ms·

FlexJS: MXML and ActionScript to run natively in the browser without Flash

44 points by riqbal 10y ago

crudbug 10y ago
ActionScript was a viable answer to introducing optional Types on JavaScript. NIH syndrome got this one.
- Illniyar 10y ago
  I don't know if NIH is applicable here, ActionScript 3 adopted the optional type syntax of what was supposed to be ES4 , not the other way around (I think).
  - Jasper_ 10y ago
    Nah, ES4 was far more complex and R&D-y than what AS3 put out. AS3 was basically TypeScript. For a more complete idea of ES4's type system, see "Evolutionary Programming and Gradual Typing in ES4": http://www.ecmascript.org/es4/spec/evolutionary-programming-tutorial.pdf http://www.ecmascript.org/es4/spec/evolutionary-programming-...
  - artjumble 10y ago
    If I remember correctly, early proposals of the ES4 standard had a type system. It was later removed, but ActionScript continued down that path anyway.
  - crudbug 10y ago
    Dart / TypeScript / Flow are trying to fix the same problems. Also, I see React with JSX repeating what MXML (AS3) / FXML (JavaFX) did 10 years back.
    - pitaj 10y ago
      FXML is only 5 years old, and acts more like HTML than JSX.
  - darkmarmot 10y ago
    Adobe was pushing classes and types in ES4. From what I've heard, Microsoft sabotaged those efforts and Adobe continued on without them...
    - throwow34393 10y ago
      And now MS is trying to replace JS with Typescript ... the irony. So much time wasted because of petty fighting and stupid egos if anybody remembers what happened around 2006/2007 with ES4. So much stupid people that slowed down Javascript's evolution, and the web in general. MS bears a huge responsibility in this.
Marazan 10y ago
As a long time Flex developer who has a lot of affection for the technology I'm was not hugely impressed by how a dev would implement an app that would render to HTML5 in FlexJS.
jsjohnst 10y ago
As someone who actually liked AS3 (and to a lesser extent MXML), but loathes the Flash runtime, this is kinda exciting. Can't wait to try this when it's more than just a PoC.
- joshtynjala 10y ago
  FlexJS is actually beyond PoC at this point, but the docs are proving to be slow to catch up. The contributors have been discussing doc improvements on the mailing list recently, and I think once the content is better fleshed out, the perception of the project's maturity will be way different. You should check it out, ask questions on the mailing list, and point out what seems especially missing in the docs.
  - jsjohnst 10y ago
    Thanks for the tip. Guess that's what I get for depending on the docs and not reading the code.
- giancarlostoro 10y ago
  Have you tried Haxe[0]? Influenced by ActionScript, compiles to several platforms (including Flash itself, as well as HTML5 and other languages). Has a Flash-API like library as well[1]. [0]: https://haxe.org/ https://haxe.org/ [1]: http://www.openfl.org/ http://www.openfl.org/
  - jsjohnst 10y ago
    I have! In fact, I wrote an early PoC implementation of a hAxe <-> PHP "compiler". When I learned someone else was doing it, I scrapped mine and helped with theirs.
0x0 10y ago
I take it this does not bring any of the flash.* actionscript APIs nor any support for Flash SWF sprites, nor the flex 1/2/3/4 UI components, since they are talking about a <js:xyz/> set of libraries. So this is slightly interesting in its own, but leaves a lot of work on the table for anyone looking to porting existing flex apps.
- joshtynjala 10y ago
  If you're interested in the Flash runtime APIs, someone's working on an open source project that implements them for ActionScript compiled with FlexJS. https://github.com/matrix3d/spriteflexjs https://github.com/matrix3d/spriteflexjs
darkmarmot 10y ago
I wish they'd focus on the Flash/AS3 part and drop MXML. AS3 (aka DOA ECMAscript v4) was a pretty solid language offering the flexibility of JS with native classes and types that were optional... The declarative aspects of MXML were beneficial but half-baked IMO.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- hatsix 10y ago
  I disagree... looking at the rise of JSX and HTMLBars, MXML was, if anything, ahead of it's time. Being able to compose a page of components allowed for a clear understanding of the composition hierarchy, while allowing for structural components (like tabs) that have their children defined by the parent. MXML is a key part of why Flex as so popular... AS3 helped, but Flex let teams of developers and designers work on projects... something that couldn't be managed w/ JS frameworks of-the-time. If all you want is AS3's features, look into TypeScript.
  - camwest 10y ago
    I agree MXML and the Flex Component model feel very similar to JSX and the React Component model. For example take a look at the way the MXML Component Lifecycle worked: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2588503/mxml-component-life-cycle http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2588503/mxml-component-li...
  - 0x0 10y ago
    Seeing XAML/WPF/Silverlight in the microsoft c# world after seeing MXML was like going one step backwards, in my opinion. Very similar but XAML is more awkward and verbose.
carlosrovira 10y ago
Apache FleJS is getting more and more interesting each month. Now with 0.7.0 release it got many things up like maven build, debugging with AS3, NodeJS integration, Visual Studio Code extension, and many others... Unlike other JS frameworks, FlexJS is a complete technology composed of languages (AS3/MXML), compilers, frameworks, and is development cost is greater than others, but as things are coming into place the wait is worth it :). I recommend you to join and play a little with technology! :)
kevinSuttle 10y ago
Ha! Talk about serendipity. http://kevinsuttle.com/posts/jsx-2-adobe-flex http://kevinsuttle.com/posts/jsx-2-adobe-flex
jawngee 10y ago
OpenLazlo was a flex-alike that targeted flash and dhtml (yup, dhtml) but is no longer amongst the living. I shipped a project with it a long time ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenLaszlo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenLaszlo
fineline 10y ago
This looks great, although roughly 5 years too late. Adobe's late 2011 communications around the Flash/Flex platform and the ensuing alienation and loss of a large developer community must go down as one of the low-points in corporate planning and communication.
ivanb 10y ago
The rationale of this project is unclear to me. For existing Flex projects one should just continue to use regular Flex on Flash and try to slowly migrate to modern JavaScript. Irregardless of the target platform new projects should never be started on Flex nowadays.
tvwonline 10y ago
The fact this was written on April 1st doesn't mean anything to anyone?
- ed 10y ago
  It appears to be a real project - https://github.com/apache/flex-asjs https://github.com/apache/flex-asjs

44 points by riqbal 10y ago

crudbug 10y ago

ActionScript was a viable answer to introducing optional Types on JavaScript. NIH syndrome got this one.

Illniyar 10y ago
I don't know if NIH is applicable here, ActionScript 3 adopted the optional type syntax of what was supposed to be ES4 , not the other way around (I think).
- Jasper_ 10y ago
  Nah, ES4 was far more complex and R&D-y than what AS3 put out. AS3 was basically TypeScript. For a more complete idea of ES4's type system, see "Evolutionary Programming and Gradual Typing in ES4": http://www.ecmascript.org/es4/spec/evolutionary-programming-tutorial.pdf http://www.ecmascript.org/es4/spec/evolutionary-programming-...
- artjumble 10y ago
  If I remember correctly, early proposals of the ES4 standard had a type system. It was later removed, but ActionScript continued down that path anyway.
- crudbug 10y ago
  Dart / TypeScript / Flow are trying to fix the same problems. Also, I see React with JSX repeating what MXML (AS3) / FXML (JavaFX) did 10 years back.
  - pitaj 10y ago
    FXML is only 5 years old, and acts more like HTML than JSX.
- darkmarmot 10y ago
  Adobe was pushing classes and types in ES4. From what I've heard, Microsoft sabotaged those efforts and Adobe continued on without them...
  - throwow34393 10y ago
    And now MS is trying to replace JS with Typescript ... the irony. So much time wasted because of petty fighting and stupid egos if anybody remembers what happened around 2006/2007 with ES4. So much stupid people that slowed down Javascript's evolution, and the web in general. MS bears a huge responsibility in this.

Marazan 10y ago

As a long time Flex developer who has a lot of affection for the technology I'm was not hugely impressed by how a dev would implement an app that would render to HTML5 in FlexJS.

jsjohnst 10y ago

As someone who actually liked AS3 (and to a lesser extent MXML), but loathes the Flash runtime, this is kinda exciting. Can't wait to try this when it's more than just a PoC.

joshtynjala 10y ago
FlexJS is actually beyond PoC at this point, but the docs are proving to be slow to catch up. The contributors have been discussing doc improvements on the mailing list recently, and I think once the content is better fleshed out, the perception of the project's maturity will be way different. You should check it out, ask questions on the mailing list, and point out what seems especially missing in the docs.
- jsjohnst 10y ago
  Thanks for the tip. Guess that's what I get for depending on the docs and not reading the code.
giancarlostoro 10y ago
Have you tried Haxe[0]? Influenced by ActionScript, compiles to several platforms (including Flash itself, as well as HTML5 and other languages). Has a Flash-API like library as well[1]. [0]: https://haxe.org/ https://haxe.org/ [1]: http://www.openfl.org/ http://www.openfl.org/
- jsjohnst 10y ago
  I have! In fact, I wrote an early PoC implementation of a hAxe <-> PHP "compiler". When I learned someone else was doing it, I scrapped mine and helped with theirs.

0x0 10y ago

I take it this does not bring any of the flash.* actionscript APIs nor any support for Flash SWF sprites, nor the flex 1/2/3/4 UI components, since they are talking about a <js:xyz/> set of libraries. So this is slightly interesting in its own, but leaves a lot of work on the table for anyone looking to porting existing flex apps.

joshtynjala 10y ago
If you're interested in the Flash runtime APIs, someone's working on an open source project that implements them for ActionScript compiled with FlexJS. https://github.com/matrix3d/spriteflexjs https://github.com/matrix3d/spriteflexjs

darkmarmot 10y ago

I wish they'd focus on the Flash/AS3 part and drop MXML. AS3 (aka DOA ECMAscript v4) was a pretty solid language offering the flexibility of JS with native classes and types that were optional... The declarative aspects of MXML were beneficial but half-baked IMO.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
hatsix 10y ago
I disagree... looking at the rise of JSX and HTMLBars, MXML was, if anything, ahead of it's time. Being able to compose a page of components allowed for a clear understanding of the composition hierarchy, while allowing for structural components (like tabs) that have their children defined by the parent. MXML is a key part of why Flex as so popular... AS3 helped, but Flex let teams of developers and designers work on projects... something that couldn't be managed w/ JS frameworks of-the-time. If all you want is AS3's features, look into TypeScript.
- camwest 10y ago
  I agree MXML and the Flex Component model feel very similar to JSX and the React Component model. For example take a look at the way the MXML Component Lifecycle worked: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2588503/mxml-component-life-cycle http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2588503/mxml-component-li...
- 0x0 10y ago
  Seeing XAML/WPF/Silverlight in the microsoft c# world after seeing MXML was like going one step backwards, in my opinion. Very similar but XAML is more awkward and verbose.

carlosrovira 10y ago

Apache FleJS is getting more and more interesting each month. Now with 0.7.0 release it got many things up like maven build, debugging with AS3, NodeJS integration, Visual Studio Code extension, and many others... Unlike other JS frameworks, FlexJS is a complete technology composed of languages (AS3/MXML), compilers, frameworks, and is development cost is greater than others, but as things are coming into place the wait is worth it :). I recommend you to join and play a little with technology! :)

kevinSuttle 10y ago

Ha! Talk about serendipity. http://kevinsuttle.com/posts/jsx-2-adobe-flex http://kevinsuttle.com/posts/jsx-2-adobe-flex

jawngee 10y ago

OpenLazlo was a flex-alike that targeted flash and dhtml (yup, dhtml) but is no longer amongst the living. I shipped a project with it a long time ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenLaszlo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenLaszlo

fineline 10y ago

This looks great, although roughly 5 years too late. Adobe's late 2011 communications around the Flash/Flex platform and the ensuing alienation and loss of a large developer community must go down as one of the low-points in corporate planning and communication.

ivanb 10y ago

The rationale of this project is unclear to me. For existing Flex projects one should just continue to use regular Flex on Flash and try to slowly migrate to modern JavaScript. Irregardless of the target platform new projects should never be started on Flex nowadays.

tvwonline 10y ago

The fact this was written on April 1st doesn't mean anything to anyone?

ed 10y ago
It appears to be a real project - https://github.com/apache/flex-asjs https://github.com/apache/flex-asjs