While on the subject of Flash, it should be pointed out that there are now significant efforts in the Flash community to turn Flash into an Open Source platform. Noone knows how happy Macromedia really is about it, but it’s great news for developers. They can now bypass the Flash interface altogether, and code their ActionScripts in the Eclipse IDE and compile it in MTASC.

Not only does this development allow coders to create Flash apps without ever buying a Macromedia product. It also makes a lot of sense when you consider that it is often more practical to develop Flash applications in a proper programming IDE these days. Gone are the days when a typical Flash movie made extensive use of the timeline. Instead, Flash sites use event-driven programming with dynamically loaded resources. Flash is becoming more like a professional programming environment and less like a visual effects generator. And now we have the Open Source tools to make it even better.

OSFlash is an excellent resource for all your Open Source Flash needs.