Link: Adobe Alchemy, is it ActionScript heresy?

This is a very interesting post from UnitZeroOne – “Adobe Alchemy, is it ActionScript heresy ?”

Alchemy – if you don’t already know – is the name of one of Adobes’ new labs projects – a method for compiling non-actionscript code into Actionscript Byte Code (ABC), which is ultimately what runs in the Flash Player.  

This is very interesting because it means that it would open up a huge array of existing code libraries from other languages, and mean that they in their raw format*, could be used in the Flash Player.  This is different to where we currently stand, where other code libraries have to be rewritten manually in ActionScript.  So instead of taking the theory from one language and writing around that in ActionScript, we could just export for the Flash Player.

A working example is the DOOM game on Newgrounds: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/470460

That’s the original game, right there, just published with Alchemy.

Wow, but uh, back to the topic?

UnitZeroOne has delved deep into the realm of Alchemy, and come up with some interesting relavations – concerning such facts as Alchemy generated code runs faster than it’s ActionScript-coded equivilant:

Alchemy is proof that this is not the case. Here’s a bit of pure heresy in the Adobe church : Alchemy is a testament to the underachievement of the ActionScript compiler. Ouch. Surely, this can’t be the case, right ? Well, yes and no.

And the fact that Alchemy can apparently do things that the normal ActionScript compiler cannot – which is partially where the performance gains come from.

There’s a whole load of interesting information on UnitZeroOne, so I suggest you check it out: http://www.unitzeroone.com/blog/2008/11/28/adobe-alchemy-is-it-actionscript-heresy/