Today It’s 10th Anniversary of ASV…

May 16, 2010 burakk

Yay! 10 years ago today ASV version 1.0, the first decompiler for Flash, was released.

One thing Twitter taught me is that long posts are not always the best, so I will keep this really short.

As @elsassph said: We're getting old :)

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Flash, Flex, MG 1 Comment

Some of my fav tweets so far (#2)

May 14, 2010 burakk


Java is going to the dogs. It nags more often than the Adobe updater and then it even tries to sneak in the Yahoo toolbar during updates.

-quasimondo (May 14, 2010)


Dear Facebook, you email me every time one of my friends scratches his bum, but you can’t email me when you disable my iPhone app?

-aral (May 14, 2010)


Flash Player 10.1 Factoid : Flash Player 10.1 can support as many touch points as the underlying operating system supports.

-mesh (May 12, 2010)


Man, I am constantly amazed by how much people will ignore logic and reality in order to make things fit into their world view.

-mesh (May 12, 2010)


Html5 is meant to be a codec agnostic wrapper format, but in reality it’s not.

-lisamarienyc (May 11, 2010)


How far off are we for html5? CBS: ‘the idea is exciting’

-lisamarienyc (May 11, 2010)


If clients won’t require users to upgrade to F10, they’re certainly not going to ask them to change browsers. This HTML5 nonsense ends there

-stevensacks (May 11, 2010)


I think life would be better if all sentences using future tense would blink red.

-debreuil (May 11, 2010)


What HTML5 really needs is Javascript 2

-pauliusuza (May 10, 2010)


#Gianduia by #Apple: it’s not a Flash killer, it’s just another *proprietary* JS framework for Apple devices.

-pauliusuza (May 9, 2010)


you’d think that a room named the “business center” would have certain business related amenities. like, maybe, i don’t know… electricity.

-bit101 (May 9, 2010)


“It is estimated [… that HTML5 will reach a W3C recommendation in the year 2022 or later.” — http://bit.ly/79cKe5 (via @tekool)

-peterelst (May 9, 2010)


@cwahlers the constant shortage of flash devs is due to the constant claim it is about to be replaced by some half baked xml based system

-debreuil (May 9, 2010)


@jdowdell i wonder if any of those people who claim html5 will kill flash have at least a tiny clue what they’re talking about?

-cwahlers (May 9, 2010)


When do you become too lazy? When the time spent searching for a tool outweighs the time it would require to write it. Like 30 mins ago

-obwez (May 9, 2010)


don’t see how Apple’s Gianduia framework is supposed to innovate — an abstraction layer is only as strong as its underlying technology

-peterelst (May 9, 2010)


“Animation can be a little jumpy the 1st time around…” no problem they will invent pre-loader in a year or two ;)

-tekool (May 9, 2010)


If this http://is.gd/c0wd4 is any indication of #HTML5 replacing #Flash our jobs are very safe! Extra points for not working in FireFox!

-TheFlashBum (May 9, 2010)


It’s ironic that the URL page showing Apple’s “flash killer” Gianduia (sounds like an STD) just crashed my browser.

-j0eflash (May 8, 2010)


Apple is getting completely out of control in a scary way. Making Ellen apologize for making a joke about them is disgusting.

-mdowney (May 9, 2010)


I made it to Buraks (@ASVGuy) fav tweets list. Yay! Seriously, some great tweets collected there. Good read.

-bryngfors (May 7, 2010)


Using the iPad I just realized it’s not the death of Flash, it’s the death of HTML. Browsing is boring, it’s all about the apps.

-bryngfors (May 6, 2010)

And 3 bonus news-tweets:


I am in love with my new phone :)

-thibault_imbert (May 14, 2010)

Nexus One! :)


Victory! Implemented full SWC+ASDoc AS3 and MXML code completion for FlashDevelop. No more intrinsics.

-elsassph (May 14, 2010)


Celebrating the fact that Monster Debugger has been downloaded over 40.000 times! – http://bit.ly/9kaVTC

-MonsterDebugger (May 13, 2010)

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Some of my fav tweets so far (#1)

May 7, 2010 burakk


Scribd (HTML5) does look far better than it’s previous version. Their flash implementation was never done right, now they blame flash.

-abdulqabiz (May 7, 2010)


American politics is pretty messed up, but at least we’re not alone in that.

- bit101 (May 7, 2010)


Opera’s Flash bashing is dubious. Who asked them to do this? Probably the company that allowed their 2.2% browser on some kind of phone.

-joa (May 7, 2010)


What does Google want from the partnership with Adobe? Quick distribution of the VP8 codec would be my guess.

-bryngfors(May 7, 2010)


Almost done bypassing the new Amayeta SWF Encrypt update. Putting negative values in count fields is not a protection mechanism!

-swfdecrypt (May 7, 2010)


OK guys, I can cope with the “May the 4th be with you” jokes, but the “revenge of the 5th” has to stop. #starwarsday #stopthemadness

-AmmoniteInk (May 5, 2010)


am I the only one who missed http://www.buraks.com/azoth/ by @ASVGuy ?

-makc3d (May 3, 2010)


Flash ‘vs’ H.264 demystified http://bit.ly/ap5skq

-lisamarienyc (May 2, 2010)


@Natzke the problem these guys have with Flash is that if they would accept it as a standard they’d practically be out of business.

-quasimondo (May 1, 2010)


I was shocked to learn today that the media can be biased, and that it disproportionately favors Apple. Shocked I tell you.

-debreuil (May 1, 2010)


If u think there is a viable solution for an open source video codec u are fooling yourself. They’re all covered by patents

-mdowney (May 1, 2010)


@aral laughin. welcome to Apple. innovation thru forcing hardware upgrades. y do u think their OS is better than winblows ;) conditional ftw

-kbunch (April 30, 2010)


@aral I agree with what you may or may not be implying in some unreleased iPhone OS that may or may not exist in tangible or intangible form

-eric_dolecki (April 30, 2010)


I’m still cracking myself up with this Steve Jobs’s draft letter: http://www.phillipkerman.com/blog/images/sj.png

-phillip (April 30, 2010)


Anyone who claims that Apple understands UI and UX has never used iTunes before.

-stefanrichter (April 30, 2010)


Steve Jobs is becoming the Hugo Chavez of the tech world.

-lordalex (April 29, 2010)


Steve Jobs has some things right, but there´s a lot of lies and half lies. The problem is that few will check up the details.

-bryngfors (April 29, 2010)


html gets a lot of credit for what javascript and backend languages do. Like a shit goalie with excellent defense.

-debreuil (April 29, 2010)


The most *URGENT* enquiries that apparently *NEED IMMEDIATE HELP* very quickly quieten down when I mention my consultancy rates.

-stefanrichter (April 28, 2010)


Made what may be the best programmer art ever. I used to make-a-living as a graphic designer. That person has now officially died.

-debreuil (April 24, 2010)


People want things they own to be closed, and things they do not own to be open. Bloggers and idealogues just don’t own much. (via @mheard)

-rabois (April 24, 2010)


fyi, calling me a “wanker” is considered an off topic comment on my blog post. There seems to be some confusion over that.

-mesh (April 21, 2010)


I really do not understand why these know-it-all loud-mouthed total dicks are always on the other side. And then I do understand.

-quasimondo (April 20, 2010)


I have to admit, I lost a copy a confidential copy of Contribute CS5 in a bar. Hopefully, nothing on Techchrunch yet. What a relief!

-thibault_imbert (April 20, 2010)


Everything’s amazing and nobody’s happy! c/o @cspelsor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk

-seb_ly (April 17, 2010)


Tired of popup Flash ads? Well, with HTML5 you’ll get popunders and more which can’t be blocked since it served from the DOM tree.

-bryngfors (April 16, 2010)


Too true :) RT @elsassph: Now that @ASVGuy is listening: ASV/UAE/ASR totally rock! They saved my life more than I’d like to admit.

-mikedotalmond (April 16, 2010)


Now that @ASVGuy is listening: ASV/UAE/ASR totally rock! They saved my life more than I’d like to admit.

-elsassph (April 16, 2010)

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I’m now on Twitter

April 18, 2010 burakk

I’m still trying to get the feel of it, but I’ve decided that I like it. You can follow me or tweet me a welcome.

Thanks to the warm welcome I have already received.

BTW, ‘Go screw yourself Apple‘*.

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Misc. 2 Comments

Happy New Year!

January 1, 2010 burakk

Happy New Year! [end of post]

Click to continue reading “Happy New Year!”

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‘Apple App Store is an ongoing karma leak’

November 21, 2009 burakk

"How did Apple get into this mess? Their fundamental problem is
that they don't understand software."

An excellent essay by Paul Graham.

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Prefixes vs. Namespaces… Why would the prefix solution have scaled better?

June 2, 2009 burakk

The prefix solution would have scaled better? Yes. And this does not contradict with what I wrote about how similar both are, in my previous post.

Click to continue reading “Prefixes vs. Namespaces… Why would the prefix solution have scaled better?”

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Flash, Flex 1 Comment

Prefixes vs. Namespaces… You need to ask the right question to get the right answer…

June 1, 2009 burakk

Without any rant on (custom) namespaces, here’s why I think using prefixes would have been the right decision, and probably the only viable choice.

Click to continue reading “Prefixes vs. Namespaces… You need to ask the right question to get the right answer…”

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Flash, Flex 4 Comments

Do you really have to give up standards for simplicity?

May 30, 2009 burakk

Yes, absolutely, when it makes sense to do so.

I'm amazed how humans seek approval of an authority and feel comfortable when they have it.

Lets take W3C recommendations. A committee decides on something and many people think of them as rules, laws (kind of like god made), they do not try to understand the reasoning behind them, they just accept them as they are.

I have blogged about this before. According to my criteria many W3C 'standards' are totally wrong, and to my surprise it's no secret how they do things and why. Still, many people don't want to think one step further. I believe many will have agreed with me, if they really gave a minute of thought on the subject.

(BTW, Scott Adams' Power of Ridiculous Reasons is a good read).

What are standards? Why are the standards as they are? Why is something a standard?

QWERTY keyboard layout was designed to slow the typer (at the time of mechanical typewriters, to avoid jams). It's the standard layout many of us still use, though we will like to type faster and there's no jamming issue with our current computer keyboards.

If faster typing is your goal, when you hit the QWERTY layout barrier, you should question the standard. What was the reasoning, did it ever make sense, does it make sense now?

I can agree to disagree – afterall, we are all different, we can't agree on everything. But defending an argument by mentioning 'standards' really doesn't make an impression on me.

I value simplicity. If some standard is making things unnecessarily complicated (when there's a clear simple choice with no drawbacks), I will question the standard first rather than give up simplicity.

Of course, I'm not saying that simple is always better:

"Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler." -  Albert Einstein

You have to recognize it when it is better, and not simpler than necessary.

Einstein also said:

"Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and
more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to
move in the opposite direction."

And while at it, the following is one of my favorite quotations, from Einstein:

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

[This post is not an answer to another post - hence no link. It's just that a sentence in a blog post inspired me to write about this. Still let me state what I think about namespaces vs. prefixes again:

- IMO Namespaces do not solve any real problem. They solve artificial problems.

- There's something that looks elegant and cool about namespaces, just like some furniture that looks great but has awful functionality. Deceiving, I say. Must think one step further.

- Using a prefix is inherently simpler and better than using namespaces. (Assume there was no namespace type. If a simple prefix solves the problem, you don't need namespaces at all).

- As I don't think namespaces are any good, and should not ideally be in a language as a type, even without any context, if one solution makes use of namespaces and the other does not. I'd say that the other solution is better.

- When you need to use a prefix, you just do it. There is no problem to write home about. Even if you think there is a problem, it exists only for a tiny moment until you realize you can use a prefix. Prefixes are not features of a language, they are just naming conventions. What do you do when you realize you have redefined a local variable named "a" a second time, and the compiler is not happy about it? Define namespaces to fix the name collision, or, just rename the new variable "a" to "b"?

- I value backwards compatibility very much (maybe more than most). But you don't have to be consistent if you are moving forward. (Take AS1/2 and AS3. Flash player runs AS1/2, but AS3 is not consistent with AS1/2).]

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Flash, Flex 3 Comments

I don’t believe in NameSpaces

May 27, 2009 burakk

I've been professionally programming for more than 20 years [1] and I've never needed to use a namespace.

I do know what a Namespace is. I think I shouldn't have.

Rarely, when the compiler cannot figure out what variable or function I'm referring to, it just signals an error and I fix this by writing the qualified name. That's all there is and there should be to it.

Of course namespaces can be there as leaked abstractions of implementation details. Ideally, a programmer should not know about them [2].

Why? Because, they don't help much, don't have much use, They are extra things to learn and complicate things unnecessarily. (Objects as abstractions actually help programming, Namespaces don't). (And there are XML namespaces, which I don't like in a different way).

Namespaces in a programming language solve an artificial problem and they create a bigger problem than they solve.

Still you may like them. But if that's the case, can you tell me how these fit in a scripting language that doesn't have a pointer type or memory management (by user)?

The first time I heard about 'Advanced' data structures called linked lists(!), I was surprised but later this made sense [3].

ActionScript should be simple. A namespace soup complicates things without much, if any, benefit in return. I don't think any language needs a spelled out Namespace type but scripting languages more so [4].

But we do have namespaces in AS3. I'm not proposing that they should be removed (Backwards compatibility is important). They just should not be made to look like a fundamental property of the language. Someone who has never heard of namespaces should be able to program in AS with no side effects caused by language design. This will make AS better than the rest [5].

Luckily, currently the situation is not hopeless, you can do without namespaces most of the time. What I'm afraid is the future directions.

I call namespaces  the unnecessary evil …

[1] Actually 21. I've programmed in Basic, Z80 and 80×86 assembly, C, C++, Delphi Pascal and briefly in Cobol, Fortran, Lisp and Prolog. I won't bother listing numerous scripting languages.

[2] C++ has many features that many programmers don't know and care about. You can do without them and this is totally OK with me.

[3] Linked lists are simple data structures, not advanced.

[4] In AS3 there are some features that make use of namespaces which IMHO should have been implemented in other ways.

[5] Computer language design is my hobby. It's one of the two subjects I feel like I'm truly qualified to talk about. Of course, you are free to disagree. But my thoughts on language design has many years of background and it's unlikely that I will change my opinion on namespaces.

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