Free software on proprietary formats ?

[MJ Ray]

On 2004-11-21 00:54:00 +0000 Odile Bénassy <obenassy at free.fr> wrote:

> What do you think of a so called free software based on Flash ?
> If it is free, the sources must be given. What about source files written in 
> a proprietary (flash) format ?

It is difficult. The SWF format actually seems to be readable, although the official specifications might be under a NDA. Several free software tools can produce SWF - of course, the sources to make those produce a particular flash file is an easy tool.

I thought you didn't usually directly write the flash SWF format, but used some authoring tool which has project source files? If you have a particular case in mind, that may be easier for people to discuss.

Some AFFS supporters have been wrestling with the flash problem and keeping notes at http://www.affs.org.uk/~alex/HowDoWeReplaceFlash which may give you more information.

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