Introduction

Since Flash 3, Flash has had the ability to export the SWF file as a self-running program for both Mac and PCs. These self-running programs are called Projectors. With the latest version of Actionscript and the help of a third party Projector Tool, there's almost no limit to the applications you can create using Flash.

With Flash 3 came the beginnings of programming in Flash. They were extremely limited, but clever developers found ways to use the tool that Macromedia had never thought of. With the possibility to export files as a program that could run on either Mac or PCs, many tried making programs with Flash. Macromedia had included a command called FSCommand that would allow the Flash Player to talk to its surroundings. The options were very limited, but you could actually execute programs outside the Flash Player itself and third party developers figured out how to use this to extend what a Flash Projector could do.

Projector tools today
Things have come a long way since then and todays Projector tools are advanced programs with hundreds of commands that allow you to interact with the OS, browse for and open files, create screensavers, upload and download files to the harddrive and much more. The possibilities are endless and only limited by the speed of the player and your own imagination.

For the first time ever, Flashmagazine looks at some of the major players in the Projector Tool market and compare them to each other. Most of the tools have been reviewed before, but this time we do a more in-depth review and offer you a chance to compare their features and ease of use.

The contenders
The tools reviewed are Zinc (formerly Flash Studio Pro), SWF Studio, Jugglor, mProjector, ScreenWeaver and iceProjector. We know there are other tools, but we had to limit ourselves to some of the major players. Tools such as SWFKit have extensive feature sets, but fail horribly at delivering readable documentation in English.

The reviews
To really test the software, we've spent a lot of time with each of them. Every tool is tested for Features, Documentation, Ease of use, Platform support, Extensibility and the Support offered. We've also included the script required to open and display the contents of a text file. This will make it easy to see how the tools differ in use and we have also included a link to a full application made with each tool.

We hope you enjoy the result!

 

 

Comments

No comments for this page.

Submit a comment

Only registered members can comment. Click the link at the top of this page to register.