Comments on: The Secret Life of SWFs: Flex 2’s undocumented SwfxPrinter tool http://joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/ Just another WordPress weblog Mon, 28 Dec 2009 08:44:01 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Anthony Sapien http://joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/comment-page-1/#comment-71335 Anthony Sapien Sat, 14 Nov 2009 05:48:06 +0000 http://www.joeberkovitz.com/blog/?p=41#comment-71335 Thanks so much for finding and writing about this. I just reduced a Flash project by 25%. Thanks so much for finding and writing about this. I just reduced a Flash project by 25%.

]]> By: joe http://joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/comment-page-1/#comment-113 joe Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:48:06 +0000 http://www.joeberkovitz.com/blog/?p=41#comment-113 Phil, it's a colon on MacOS/UNIX but a semicolon on Windows. we're both right! Phil, it’s a colon on MacOS/UNIX but a semicolon on Windows. we’re both right!

]]> By: Phil Crosby http://joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/comment-page-1/#comment-112 Phil Crosby Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:40:12 +0000 http://www.joeberkovitz.com/blog/?p=41#comment-112 First line of your article should be: java -classpath asc.jar:swfkit.jar flash.swf.tools.SwfxPrinter [options] swfFilename (replace semicolon with colon) First line of your article should be:

java -classpath asc.jar:swfkit.jar flash.swf.tools.SwfxPrinter [options] swfFilename

(replace semicolon with colon)

]]> By: Soph-Ware Associates | Blog http://joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/comment-page-1/#comment-114 Soph-Ware Associates | Blog Mon, 10 Dec 2007 23:25:42 +0000 http://www.joeberkovitz.com/blog/?p=41#comment-114 [...] 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://joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/comment-page-1/#comment-111 TroyWorks » Blog Archive » Sketch: View Controller separation, MovieClip.addFrameScript Wed, 29 Aug 2007 05:15:38 +0000 http://www.joeberkovitz.com/blog/?p=41#comment-111 [...] 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://joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/comment-page-1/#comment-110 joe Thu, 24 May 2007 14:26:26 +0000 http://www.joeberkovitz.com/blog/?p=41#comment-110 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://joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/comment-page-1/#comment-109 Robert Thu, 24 May 2007 11:42:48 +0000 http://www.joeberkovitz.com/blog/?p=41#comment-109 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://joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/comment-page-1/#comment-108 joe Mon, 09 Apr 2007 13:45:54 +0000 http://www.joeberkovitz.com/blog/?p=41#comment-108 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://joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/comment-page-1/#comment-107 joe Mon, 09 Apr 2007 13:37:08 +0000 http://www.joeberkovitz.com/blog/?p=41#comment-107 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://joeberkovitz.com/blog/2007/04/08/secret-life-of-swfs/comment-page-1/#comment-106 Nicolas Mon, 09 Apr 2007 12:08:00 +0000 http://www.joeberkovitz.com/blog/?p=41#comment-106 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.

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