NeoSwiff adds Flash Player 9 support

NeoSwiff, the C# to .swf compiler, has added beta support for Flash Player 9. NeoSwiff applications now run up to 35 times faster.

The guys at GlobFX have been doing a great job with NeoSwiff from my view on the sidelines. I'm only a casual user at best, but have been impressed with the quality of their compiler. The exact same C# codebase can target Flash Players 7-8, or Flash Player 9 without any modifications. This means that you can offer the same NeoSwiff application to people with older versions of the player, but also offer a high speed supercharged version to those who've already upgraded to Flash Player 9.

They've even managed to keep their inline assembly code working, for the hardcore nerds out there. A sample snippet (for calling the native Security.loadPolicyFile while targeting both AVM1 and AVM2):

static unsafe void loadPolicyFile( string url )
{
  #if __VM1__
  __asm
  {
    push url
    push 1
    push "System"
    getv
    push "security"
    getm
    push "loadPolicyFile"
    callm
    pop
    }
  #else
  __asm
  {
    ldlex "flash.system.Security"
    ldarg url
    callp "loadPolicyFile", 1
    pop
  }
  #endif 
}

I'll still be using Flex 2 and ActionScript 3 for my daily work, but credit goes out to GlobFX for their continued work on a great product for C# developers.

Tags: NeoSwiff