[Gloucs] Re: suseinvasion

[David Corking]

> The game was written as part of a 2 day flash advanced actionscript course
> where the end goal was to create a fully functional game in less than 3k.
> A stop button would have taken it over this limit, (closing the browser
> window works for me).

I don't know Flash at all - except that if I right click on a Flash
plug-in, there is often a tick on 'Play' that I untick to stop.  I did
not realise that had to be coded, and I thought you had disabled it as
part of the joke.

> Maybe I should add a timer ?

That would spoil the joke :)

> FlashMX works with wine as does DreamweaverMX, I use crossoffice for quick
> and easy use and better stability.

Nice of the course tutor to let you use your Linux machine.

Did you see the article in Linux Format 59 about compiling PHP to
ActionScript natively with Free Software?  It looks like fun  (uses ming 
http://ming.sourceforge.net/ -- the code examples include running
scripts - playing space invaders with an IBM TrackPoint is a pain.)

However, I am not sure what you would gain by using a free compiler to
target a proprietary run-time.

How would you think Flash compares with Java for making interactive
applets?  I bet it knocks Javascript into a cocked hat, if only
because of browser incompatibilities and security restrictions in
Javascript.

> I also have Sage Accounting, IE and other MS apps running through
> wine.

That is an impressive list.  Though many people have told me they
prefer to do small business books by hand rather than use Sage or
QuickBooks :) (Apparently CodeWeavers use Quickbooks on wine
in-house.)  We just had a discussion about GnuCash for small business
on the BBLUG mailing list and I was interested by a recent debate in
the LWN comments :-

http://lwn.net/Articles/115877/

Best regards, David

p.s. I was planning to migrate from SuSE to Debian, but the success of
Geeko in your game has made me think.