Hi, I'm new here. I wonder how many of you / us have background with Adobe Flash / ActionScript. And how many of us still using Animate as primary enviroment for ZIM developement?
To be honest I'm still using a lot of AS3 with Animate 2019 like I was doing many years prior, because I'm feeling comfortable with what I know. I only recently switch to ZIM to be still relevant somehow.
I'm making apps for touchscreens mainly for interactive kiosk in museums and to be honest I could still use old tech for most of my work. But as now, apps are more commonly offline websites so ZIM come in handy.
We are totally from Flash and Director before that. I stuck with Flash probably two years later than I should have because it was such a shame to see it go. Due to the delay, ZIM sort of missed the early Canvas Buzz. In the end, I am happier now than ever before with how things are coded.
I have always done primarily code based projects. The IDE does let you lay some things out easily... and is nice for making shapes. So sometimes, I still use Animate for that. It is pretty easy to make a vector icon, for instance, then save the file and just grab the shape's p() code. That goes into a ZIM Shape and you can use it in ZIM. That is what Pizzazz is.
We have decided not to go the IDE route. We have made some tools like the Emitter - and started ZIM Snips (unfinished prototype) but decided not to keep ZIM purely code based.
We do have some tools in ZIM that help - like the place() method that you can put on any displayObject then drag the object to where you want it and check the console for the x and y for the loc(). Also Grid and Guide were earlier tools to help position things, but place() is easier.
For shapes, there is ZIM Paths - Interactive Path Animations that let you make Blob and Squiggle shapes or you can bring in SVG code into Blob and Squiggles or as SVG().
Below is a link to the Dan Zen Museum Expo Code 2 exhibit - the Flash years. There is a Code 1 for ZIM and a Code 3 for Director and early Perl work at the dawn of the Internet. The ZIM exhibit is from 2014 so 10 years ago - basically ZIM ONE.
Here are some old blob posts during the transition time... an interesting read.
- Flash and HCJ (HTML, CSS and JavaScript) (2011)
- The Truth about Flash on Mobile (2011)
- Flash is Finished (but not how you have been brainwashed to believe) (2012)
- Apple Should be Punished for Attempting to Kill Browser Plugins (2012)
- Processing is Dead! All Hail JavaScript! (2012)
CONCLUSION
We have now made 500-1000 apps in ZIM without Animate and pretty well not missed it once. But for those that use Animate and the timeline... we did a set of tutorials.
Please message with us (see the MESSAGE section in the left-side menu of the Forum) if you any questions on how to do ZIM only. We would be happy to do a Discord or Zoom call and help you transition. Otherwise, keep on coding - where ever you are comfortable!
Dr Abstract