Two Threads Collide:

• I randomly came across a reference to Flash Player 8, which promises to be focused on designers as opposed to developers (i.e. more speed), and then on FLOG I saw a reference to a video demo of the player alleging speed increases of 145%. That’s cool! I am wondering if they’re finally integrating video hardware features into the players. I’d like to see something compile into native code as well. Flash Desktop, anyone?

• I’ve also heard of processing, the artistic programming language, in the past. It’s a graphics programming library based on (and in fact written in) Java. I took a browse through its [core functions]. It has 3d primitives built in, with lighting, and that’s an interesting plus over Flash. Speed, it’s noted, should be comparable if not better than Flash Player 7.

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p>The only thing that keeps me from looking at Processing is sheer obstinance… I’m not a big fan of Java development if only because the IDEs haven’t been very cool. Like the painter who enjoys the smell of turpentine, I’m the sort of computer user who loves a solid GUI. Bad interfaces grate on me, and as a result I tend not to use new tools unless the benefit clearly outweighs the mental anguish :-)

On the other hand, it’s been a few years since I’ve looked at Java, computers are faster now, so it may be worth looking at again for me. If i were to choose a programming language now (and actually, I am), it would probably be Windows C++ or C#.