Flash 8.5 – binary sockets again

There is a thread on the FlashKit forums about the 8.5 FlashPlayer. After some speculations and rumors Mike Chambers issued a statement and revealed some interessting facts. This is the most important one for me:

“3. Binary sockets basically allow you to connect to anything, and create custom protocols. want to connect to an email, ftp or irc server directly? Go ahead. Don’t like Flash Remoting? Make your own binary protocal. Want to send images to and from the server via a socket? sure thing.”

Get the point? Instead of using PHP as a proxy between client and server you will be able to establish direct connections. Well all this featrues were of cause possible in the past but remember there is a huge difference between a real client-server connection and reloading some PHP script every second and getting XML data back into Flash.

IRC is a good example for a new possibility. It’s the same with FTP but that could be faked (cause it is no problem to navigate through the server and cache the paths and lists). A PHP script can never do what you need. Because the script can’t keep the connection to the IRC server established after it has been executed etc.

I was addicted to IRC long time ago and did a lot(!) of stuff using MSL. It is something nostalgic for me and well – maybe I can remember all that RAW events and numbers to present some IRC classes here on 17th of October :-)

Update:
Another reply on binary sockets by Mike Chambers:

“No listening socks (we have to save something for the release after 8.5!).”

No P2P games, no PASV mode for FTP clients etc. But this is not that bad. A person browsing without a firewall and/or router is very frivolous and because of that most ports will be blocked. And then try to explain to a user he has to open port 123…

I also started working on an IRC client. What I can prepare is the view and lots of utils. The only missing thing are the sockets and then the implementation. I think the sockets will work with some addListener() methods etc. so it will not be too hard. Can’t wait to test all that new stuff.

There is a thread on the FlashKit forums about the 8.5 FlashPlayer. After some speculations and rumors Mike Chambers issued a statement and revealed some interessting facts. This is the most important one for me: "3. Binary sockets basically allow you to connect to anything, and create custom protocols. want to connect to an email, ftp or irc server directly? Go ahead. Don't like Flash Remoting? Make your own binary protocal. Want to send images to and from the server via a socket? sure thing." Get the point? Instead of using PHP as a proxy between client and server you will be able to establish direct connections. Well all this featrues were of cause possible in the past but remember there is a huge difference between a real client-server connection and reloading some PHP script every second and getting XML data back into Flash. IRC is a good example for a new possibility. It's the same with FTP but that could be faked (cause it is no problem to navigate through the server and cache the paths and lists). A PHP script can never do what you need. Because the script can't keep the connection to the IRC server established after it has been executed etc. I was addicted to IRC long time ago and did a lot(!) of stuff using MSL. It is something nostalgic for me and well - maybe I can remember all that RAW events and numbers to present some IRC classes here on 17th of October :-) Update: Another reply on binary sockets by Mike Chambers: "No listening socks (we have to save something for the release after 8.5!)." No P2P games, no PASV mode for FTP clients etc. But this is not that bad. A person browsing without a firewall and/or router is very frivolous and because of that most ports will be blocked. And then try to explain to a user he has to open port 123... I also started working on an IRC client. What I can prepare is the view and lots of utils. The only missing thing are the sockets and then the implementation. I think the sockets will work with some addListener() methods etc. so it will not be too hard. Can't wait to test all that new stuff.