[worldKit-dev] AS3 / Flex Version?

[Ian Mayo]

Hi all,
to help the porting effort along, is there anybody out there AS3/Flex
proficient enough to produce a high-level overview of what is
required?

I'm happy to contribute at the nitty-gritty code level, but would like
someone "in the know" to document an overall architecture, together
with potentially improved data structures that are more compliant with
AS3/Flex - for instance I would hope that we would have sufficient
data structures to support a "tree" of data, indexed by category,
time, etc.

With the overview done, a wider number of us can contribute at the low
level knowing we're working towards the same goal.

cheers,
Ian.

On 20/08/2007, Mikel Maron <mikel_maron at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Bill
>
> You've presented a pretty good case for moving towards AS3. I think it's a
> good idea to pursue a AS3.0 Branch, with the aim to make that the main
> branch in time. So anyone interested in helping, ask off list for svn commit
> access and I'll create that Branch. We can start creating tickets and
> roadmapping that change.
>
> The guys behind ModestMaps are good friends, and they've done a great job.
> Their applications built on ModestMaps like Trulia Hindsight and Oakland
> Crimespotting are inspirational.
>
> They have a different approach from worldKit, as modestmaps is pretty much
> aimed only at Actionscript developers. worldKit, as you point out, has so
> far been developed as a standalone widget, configured primarily through XML
> and GeoRSS and somewhat through JS. Since worldKit was open sourced a couple
> years ago, there's increasing interest from developers (great!) and worldKit
> should aim to cater to a wide spectrum of users and developers.
>
> On the licensing, I'd be interested to hear opinions on GPL and BSD. Is the
> GPL a hinderance? Would anyone be unhappy moving to BSD? When I first open
> sourced worldKit, I chose the GPL as a defensive measure, but at this point
> I think it's unlikely that major improvements to worldKit would disappear
> from the community if the licensing changed to something less restrictive.
>
> Mikel
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: William Thorp <bill3000 at hotmail.com>
> To: Discussion of worldKit use and development
> <worldkit-dev at lists.brainoff.com>
> Sent: Friday, August 17, 2007 6:03:59 PM
> Subject: Re: [worldKit-dev] AS3 / Flex Version?
>
>  Hello all
>
>  Until now, I've gotten no feedback on the idea.  I had just begun porting
> the source to AS3 when I discovered ModestMaps has an AS3 port, and provided
> a quicker path to where I needed to go.  I'd be happy to share my trivial
> start at porting WorldKit -- mostly search-and-replace type stuff -- I
> believe I've left the source in a very broken mix between the AS2 API and
> AS3 syntax.  I haven't checked out
> http://osflash.org/projects/as3converter.
>
>  As for Flash vs. Flex vs. OpenLaszlo, I'd recommend straight AS3 code.
> This is usable in Flash or Flex.  You can use the free Flex SDK with a text
> editor and compile this for free (beer).  Supposedly Flex compiler itself is
> MPL'ed, but take that with a grain of salt (free speech?).  I've never used
> OpenLaszlo.  I understand that it cannot compile AS3 code, merely its own
> LZX language.  This means you don't get to use the full AS3 feature set.
> E4X and zlib support are terrific features in AS3; features I wouldn't want
> to give up.
>
>  To me, the big reason to port WorldKit to AS3 is to have code-level
> configuration abilities, not its holistic mapping functionality.  I need to
> do a good deal more than show a map + geoRss.  Flash 9 / Flex projects can
> load older Flash AS2 SWFs (it can load WorldKit as is), but they can't
> interact with older SWFs programmatically.  If WorldKit imagines itself to
> be configurable primarily through the XML configuration files -- and if this
> is mainly how it is intended to be used -- I don't see much use in porting
> it anywhere.
>
>  I have found myself more at home in the ModestMaps world: their BSD
> licensing and code-level configuration makes more sense for my projects.
> ModestMaps is still very wet-behind-the-ears, but I can live with that.  My
> apologies if I sound like an advertisement, I have nothing to do with
> ModestMaps.  I guess I'm saying "I don't really need WorldKit anymore."
> This admittion is perhaps telling -- Flex has some really nice UI features
> you can't get in Flash 8 -- if WorldKit waits for 95% Flash Player 9
> adoption before they being porting, they might loose some of their developer
> audience.
>
>  - Bill Thorp
>
>  ________________________________
>
>  > Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 09:49:23 +0100
> > From: IanMayo at freenet.co.uk
> > To: worldkit-dev at lists.brainoff.com
> > Subject: Re: [worldKit-dev] AS3 / Flex Version?
> >
> > Hi all
> >
> > a few weeks ago Bill Thorp polled for interest in porting worldKit to
> > Flex/ActionScript 3.0 (copied below). "Updating" the software in this
> > way matches my aspirations for furture use of worldKit.
> >
> > Bill: did you have any positive feedback off-list?
> > All (esp Mikel): I'm interested in any opinions regarding the pros
> > and cons of this upgrade.
> >
> > - Do members of the community look forward to adoption of Flex?
> > - Are there any features/3rd party libs that couldn't be ported?
> (zoomify?)
> > - Would in ease/complicate worldKit maintenance/adoption?
> >
> > cheers,
> > Ian.
> >
> >
> > > Hello!
> > > I was curious if anyone has tried to or successfully ported WorldKit to
> Flex
> > > or ActionScript 3. If not, I was interested if anyone would like to help
> port it
> > > to Flash 9 / AS3 with me.
> > > - Bill Thorp
> > _______________________________________________
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> > worldkit-dev at lists.brainoff.com
> >
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