Fla$h. Do I need$$?

[awsomejoe23]

Hy, I'm 15, and I just began web design around the end of march. I have seen some pretty neat pages that used flash. I went on line and began to look for a tutorial. The tutorial told me I would have to spend around $100 dollars for a program, just to run fla$h. Is this true, or was this just some sort of internet scam. I can't afford to buy any programs for webdesign, do is there anyway I could learn and use flash for free?


Thanks,


Joe

[_Aerospace_Eng_]

If you expect to make something good then yeah you'll have to spend that much. There are cheaper alternatives out there just have to find them. You get what you pay for. If you are a student sometimes you can get Flash 8 (the offical tool for making flash files) at a discounted price. Maybe you can cut yards or something to make money so you can buy what you need or maybe ask your parents.

[nexosis]

you can get it free for 30 days.

[the_scyphe]

you can get it free for 30 days.
I think only the company of macromedia itself can remove it, no one's good enough to.

[Mhtml]

I think only the company of macromedia itself can remove it, no one's good enough to.
You mean Adobe right? And to say that nobody is good enough is just ridiculous - genuine coders just have better things to do.

If you're any good as an artist and designer you'll make your dosh back quickly.

[awsomejoe23]

If you're any good as an artist and designer you'll make your dosh back quickly.

My parents do not allow me to do any sort of transactions that have to deal with personal information. Their paranoid. So even if I put some money aside I would not be able to buy any thing. So unfortunately I can't apply for ads on my site, get a descent logo, or ad anything that has to do with a program/code that costs money. :( S nobody has any suggestions as to a good opensource alternative that would be worthwhile?



Joe

[_Aerospace_Eng_]

My parents do not allow me to do any sort of transactions that have to deal with personal information. Their paranoid. So even if I put some money aside I would not be able to buy any thing. So unfortunately I can't apply for ads on my site, get a descent logo, or ad anything that has to do with a program/code that costs money. :( S nobody has any suggestions as to a good opensource alternative that would be worthwhile?



Joe
No because there are none that exist. Flash is copyrighted so a free program out there would be copyright infringement.

[LFCFan]

Hello,

You may want to check out OSFlash (Open Source Flash).

Check out this link:

http://actionscript.com/Article/tabid/54/ArticleID/towards-open-source-flash-development/Default.aspx

This will give you MTASC (an actionscript compiler independant of Flash itself), Eclipse (a Java compiler and much much more), as well as several other tools for writing, compiling and modifying Flash projects independantly of Flash.

You can write source code from scratch or use other peoples FLA's (with their permission).

Hope that helps
Joe

[_Aerospace_Eng_]

Hello,

You may want to check out OSFlash (Open Source Flash).

Check out this link:

http://actionscript.com/Article/tabid/54/ArticleID/towards-open-source-flash-development/Default.aspx

This will give you MTASC (an actionscript compiler independant of Flash itself), Eclipse (a Java compiler and much much more), as well as several other tools for writing, compiling and modifying Flash projects independantly of Flash.

You can write source code from scratch or use other peoples FLA's (with their permission).

Hope that helps
Joe

Thats great except for the cons

CONS


* Open Source Component Framework needed.

* There's no way to embed images and rich media in the SWF.

Mainly the last one.

[LFCFan]

As it says on the site, this is still an emerging technology. If you start using it now and properly getting to grips with it, you'll be a Flash guru by the time the project matures. I would go for it, but I have Flash so I have no need. Hell, I may go for it anyway!

A quote from the site:


The need for an Open Source Component Framework

As you develop with this new IDE you'll notice the necessity of a Open Source Component Framework in order to be productive. This is a great challenge for the Flash community -- to work out a solution to this issue and make Flash open source development a true reality.

Note: There's a v2 component framework workaround on the MTASC site that shows you how to use Macromedia's components, but this method is currently a hack and is out of the scope of this article. You can check it out http://www.mtasc.org (http://actionscript.com/urlForwarder.asp?RdtUrl=http://www.mtasc.org).


The last thing I'd like to point out is that this is the closest you will get to Flash without buying the real thing, as the saying goes: beggars can't be choosers.

Joe

[awsomejoe23]

http://www.mtasc.org. I downloaded the folder from there and unziped it. I don't know how to install it. Am I supposed to send it to my server or install it on my computer?

Thanks,


Joe

[Nightfire]

Install it on the computer. It says how to do it on that very page you've linked. A hint is to look at the bit under install

[awsomejoe23]

I can't seem to find a install file. I have however found this on the site
First download the MTASC package corresponding to your system and install/unzip somewhere on your computer. Then add the path of the installed executable to your PATH environment variable
But I don't have a clue what to do now that I have unziped it. the location is
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner.YOUR-**********\Desktop\mtasc-1.13\mtasc-1.13
How would I change it so that it works for the above?

[oracleguy]

If you are on Windows 2000 or XP to modify your PATH environment variable, you right click on My Computer and click on properties. Then go the Advanced tab and click on "Environment Variables" and from there you can modify the value of PATH.

You can add the path to those files onto the end, the PATH string is semicolon delimited.

[kewlceo]

The closest thing I've found to Flash so far is SWiSHmax (http://www.swishzone.com/index.php) at $99.95US.