Macromedia Flash Client for Linux?

Darrell Townsend writes "I'm a web developer, and I'm getting tired of having to switch between Windows and Linux to develop in Flash (or use some type of emulator). Are there any programs out there that I can use to develop Flash natively in Linux? (I'm not interested in any of the xml2flash-type programs, I want a full-featured IDE for Flash like that available for Windows/Mac.)"

Re:Probably...?

[toast0]

yes, but the headline says 'macromedia flash client for linux?' the previous poster probably didn't read the article very closely

This is one

[gbr]

I'm not sure if it has an IDE or not...
JGenerator [flashgap.com]

VMWare?

[CromeDome]

I'm not all that familiar with Flash, just your type of problem. . . If having to reboot your machine to switch between Linux and Windows is a pain, or if you primarily use Linux but need Windows for flash development, why don't you try VMWare? It will let you run Windows from within Linux without rebooting. Last I checked, I think that they have a Lite version (all it sounds like you need) for about $49.

CromeDome

_I'm_ interested in XML- Flash

[jason43]

is there such a beast? seems it would be a lot easier to extend an IDE from that than from swf/fla directly. Personally, I use the vmware solution myself currently... wine is getting closer to being able to handle flash tho...

Re:_I'm_ interested in XML- Flash

[Anonymous Coward]

JavaSWF has FlashXML.

http://www.anotherbigidea.com/javaswf/index.html

Okay, OKAY! Here it is.

[AtariDatacenter]

It is right in front of your nose, on the macromedia web site [macromedia.com]. Netscape plugins for alternative operating systems. That's where I got my Solaris (SPARC hardware) plugin, and it works like a champ. Very solid.

Re:Okay, OKAY! Here it is.

[AtariDatacenter]

Okay. I'm an idiot. I was thrown off by the topic, "Flash Client....". Please perform your duty as a citizen of Slashdot and nuke my posts into the trollish region they so richly deserve!

Apologies for the noise.

OpenLGX

[mini me]

There is OpenLGX [openlgx.org]. It appears to be still in development, but I do believe some copies are floating around somewhere. The website has recently changed and all information about OpenLGX is gone. It looked pretty promosing before though, maybe even better than Flash itself. Hopefully more info about it surfaces soon, even better would be a product.

Client, no he wants an authoring tool

[rfsayre]

Sorry, there's no IDE for linux. You'll just have to emulate or switch back and forth. Maybe you'll have better luck once OS X versions of the Flash and Adobe LiveMotion authoring tools are released. It might become cost effective for them to port to linux once they've developed an OS X app.

For a good summary of the situation, check out OpenSWF [openswf.org].

Re:Client, no he wants an authoring tool

[carbon60]

People are mistakenly assuming that since Max OS X = UNIX, that apps can be easily ported. Remember that Apple is using Cocoa, their Obj-C API based on OpenStep. And no, GNUStep isn't compatible, yet.

WINE runs it

[ikekrull]

I have had reasonable reults running the Flash 4 Authoring environment for Win32 on Codeweavers WINE PR4.

That is, the demo version started up happily - displaying the stage, icons etc. perfectly before telling me it had timed out, which was as far as i got.

Interestingly, Photoshop 5.5 ran almost flawlessly expect the Text tool didn't work. The one flaw is unfortunately a giant, steaming hole in the functionality of the product.

I suspect Flash would work pretty well if the full version was installed.

Fonts might be an issue, abut since fonts suck so bad under Linux, youre probably better off dual-booting/VMWare/Win4Lin-ing it for this particualr type of thing.

You can program flash files with Ming

[Vairon]

There exists a flash library that allows you to program flash (swf) files in C,C++,Php,and Python.

The name of library is Ming and it can be found at:http://www.opaque.net/ming/