Flash for Linux project is a development environment for Macromedia Flash, a format widely used for web applications and vector animation.

F4L is in such early stages of design that it is not recommended for use by people without knowlege of C++, QT, Ming, etc.

F4L is a clone, or imitation, of a Macromedia, Inc. product called Flash. The most current version of Flash is MX 2004. Flash is designed to help people make programs that can be used on any computer and that can be distributed over the Internet.

Flash can even be easily included in a web page. Most browsers include a plug-in that allows users to view Flash content in web pages. If you do not have this plug-in, you may wish to visit http://www.macromedia.com/downloads/ to get it for Mozilla (or compatible), Opera, Internet Explorer, AOL, OS X, OS 9, Pocket PC, OS/2, Irix, Solaris, or HP-UX for free.

Flash offers easy development of professional applications. Flash development is based mostly on a Graphical User Interface (GUI). Through the GUI, a developer can draw their application on the screen. Drawings can be converted to animations, buttons, and other features with the development environment's menus and dialog boxes.

Competing methods of development, such as C++, Java or JavaScript, require technical knowledge of a special programming language and mathematics. A Flash application's GUI features are extremely limited compared to a programming language based project. To compensate for this weakness, Macromedia added Action Scripts to Flash.

Action Scripts are a sort of programming language, but there are only a few commands to learn, and they are selected off a menu. Action Scripting is equivalent to programming a graphing calculator with BASIC; it should not take you more than a few days to learn, if you have the patience to read boring instructions.

While Flash can be developed with very few Action Scripts, the scripts add to the interactivity of the application. Most web sites using Flash do not use Action Scripts intensively, with the exception of games. Flash can also work with JavaScript.

What's New in This Release:

· The program can now export simple objects like images, lines, rectangles, ovals (ellipses), and text.
· The "locate" command is used to find the TrueType font files needed for text.