Comments on: The Secret Life of SWFs: Flex 2’s undocumented SwfxPrinter tool http://www.joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/ Just another WordPress weblog Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:13:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: Soph-Ware Associates | Blog http://www.joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/#comment-2189 Soph-Ware Associates | Blog Mon, 10 Dec 2007 23:25:42 +0000 http://www.joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/#comment-2189 [...] while ago, I ran across a post by Joe Berkovitz that talks about Flex’s undocumented SwfxPrinter tool. After looking at the [...] […] while ago, I ran across a post by Joe Berkovitz that talks about Flex’s undocumented SwfxPrinter tool. After looking at the […]

]]> By: TroyWorks » Blog Archive » Sketch: View Controller separation, MovieClip.addFrameScript http://www.joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/#comment-1774 TroyWorks » Blog Archive » Sketch: View Controller separation, MovieClip.addFrameScript Wed, 29 Aug 2007 05:15:38 +0000 http://www.joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/#comment-1774 [...] http://joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/ [...] […] http://joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/ […]

]]> By: joe http://www.joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/#comment-1773 joe Thu, 24 May 2007 14:26:26 +0000 http://www.joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/#comment-1773 At this point, I've switched my tool development to work off of the mxmlc Link Report XML file, since it's a bit more accessible and easier to work with. That also has font information in it. I need to find time to get the app into a state where it's usable. One problem is that it's running on an unreleased beta of Apollo right now. Eventually it'll get into a state where other folks can run with it though. At this point, I’ve switched my tool development to work off of the mxmlc Link Report XML file, since it’s a bit more accessible and easier to work with. That also has font information in it.

I need to find time to get the app into a state where it’s usable. One problem is that it’s running on an unreleased beta of Apollo right now. Eventually it’ll get into a state where other folks can run with it though.

]]> By: Robert http://www.joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/#comment-1772 Robert Thu, 24 May 2007 11:42:48 +0000 http://www.joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/#comment-1772 Hi Joe, This is fantastic. Since you aren't continuing with SWFX dev, may I ask that you release what you do have for that so I can take it up and build a font-lister for swf files? With complex projects comprising multiple swc's (some Flash, some Flex), fonts can become hairy very very quickly. A tool which quickly shows what fonts are defined for a given SWF/SWC is golden at times like this! Thanks for sharing such wonderful advice! Hi Joe,

This is fantastic. Since you aren’t continuing with SWFX dev, may I ask that you release what you do have for that so I can take it up and build a font-lister for swf files? With complex projects comprising multiple swc’s (some Flash, some Flex), fonts can become hairy very very quickly.

A tool which quickly shows what fonts are defined for a given SWF/SWC is golden at times like this!

Thanks for sharing such wonderful advice!

]]> By: joe http://www.joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/#comment-1771 joe Mon, 09 Apr 2007 13:45:54 +0000 http://www.joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/#comment-1771 A brief followup on link reports: for pure size and dependency analysis, these are better than the SWFX output since they combine the salient SWFX details with the dependencies in a pure XML format without comments. Also, they can easily be created as a byproduct of an existing compilation process. So I'm probably going to base ongoing SizeAnalyzer work on the link report instead. The SWFX dump is still a unique resource for establishing what else is going on in the file with respect to fonts, font glyphs, graphics/shapes, embeds, SystemManager overhead, and so on. And it does work on regular Flash SWFs, for which link reports are not available AFAIK. A brief followup on link reports: for pure size and dependency analysis, these are better than the SWFX output since they combine the salient SWFX details with the dependencies in a pure XML format without comments. Also, they can easily be created as a byproduct of an existing compilation process. So I’m probably going to base ongoing SizeAnalyzer work on the link report instead.

The SWFX dump is still a unique resource for establishing what else is going on in the file with respect to fonts, font glyphs, graphics/shapes, embeds, SystemManager overhead, and so on. And it does work on regular Flash SWFs, for which link reports are not available AFAIK.

]]> By: joe http://www.joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/#comment-1770 joe Mon, 09 Apr 2007 13:37:08 +0000 http://www.joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/#comment-1770 A few quick responses to questions that arrived this morning-- <br/> Brian, thanks for the observation re optimization and code size, I knew there was some obvious reason for the SWC/SWF discrepancy but I didn't think of the optimizer. (I knew it wasn't debug b/c I turned that off first!) <br/> Theo, it sounds like I should be looking at link reports as well (or instead) for size analysis purposes. It certainly is odd that the sizes are in comments in SWFX dumps, but comments are optionally preserved by most DOM APIs including E4X. <br/> As far as compression goes, I have established through experiment that compiled AS3 code on average takes about 43% of the space of uncompressed code; this gives a rule-of-thumb adjustment for size yields. For fonts, it's about 72%. These numbers come from extracting subranges of the file as indicated from the SWFX dump and doing gzip compression on them. One could use that technique for individual classes too; I should probably try a few random classes to see if they differ much from the average. A few quick responses to questions that arrived this morning–

Brian, thanks for the observation re optimization and code size, I knew there was some obvious reason for the SWC/SWF discrepancy but I didn’t think of the optimizer. (I knew it wasn’t debug b/c I turned that off first!)

Theo, it sounds like I should be looking at link reports as well (or instead) for size analysis purposes. It certainly is odd that the sizes are in comments in SWFX dumps, but comments are optionally preserved by most DOM APIs including E4X.

As far as compression goes, I have established through experiment that compiled AS3 code on average takes about 43% of the space of uncompressed code; this gives a rule-of-thumb adjustment for size yields. For fonts, it’s about 72%. These numbers come from extracting subranges of the file as indicated from the SWFX dump and doing gzip compression on them. One could use that technique for individual classes too; I should probably try a few random classes to see if they differ much from the average.

]]> By: Nicolas http://www.joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/#comment-1769 Nicolas Mon, 09 Apr 2007 12:08:00 +0000 http://www.joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/#comment-1769 Interesting. As for your SizeAnalyser, you should be careful to take into account SWF compression. It's actually quite difficult to know the exact size a class is taking in a SWF, since you could take into account its dependencies, and the actual size difference of the compressed SWF with and without this class. Interesting. As for your SizeAnalyser, you should be careful to take into account SWF compression. It’s actually quite difficult to know the exact size a class is taking in a SWF, since you could take into account its dependencies, and the actual size difference of the compressed SWF with and without this class.

]]> By: Tom Lee http://www.joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/#comment-1768 Tom Lee Mon, 09 Apr 2007 02:36:14 +0000 http://www.joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/#comment-1768 Just awesome. Any chance you'll be releasing the Apollo app? How'd you figure all this stuff out? Just awesome. Any chance you’ll be releasing the Apollo app? How’d you figure all this stuff out?

]]> By: Robert Shiue&#8217;s Blog &#187; Blog Archive &#187; Excellent Flex Extensions http://www.joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/#comment-1767 Robert Shiue&#8217;s Blog &#187; Blog Archive &#187; Excellent Flex Extensions Mon, 09 Apr 2007 01:16:52 +0000 http://www.joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/#comment-1767 [...] Undocumented Component : SwfxPrinter [...] […] Undocumented Component : SwfxPrinter […]

]]> By: Theo http://www.joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/#comment-1766 Theo Sun, 08 Apr 2007 16:58:41 +0000 http://www.joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/#comment-1766 On the topic of link report visualizing, take a look at my post on the subject: http://blog.iconara.net/2007/02/25/visualizing-mxmlcs-link-report/ I find it odd that the sizes are in comments in the SWFX files, it makes them harder to retrieve using XSL or DOM-programming. On the topic of link report visualizing, take a look at my post on the subject:

http://blog.iconara.net/2007/02/25/visualizing-mxmlcs-link-report/

I find it odd that the sizes are in comments in the SWFX files, it makes them harder to retrieve using XSL or DOM-programming.

]]>