It's been over a decade since FutureSplash, the predecessor to
Macromedia Flash, and then later Adobe Flash, was first released; who
could have imagined back then that a simple vector-based animation tool
would evolve to become a robust platform for delivering expr- sive
content, rich Internet applications, and high-quality video across a
multitude of browsers and operating systems. Today, Flash encompasses
more than just a browser plug-in and corresponding authoring tool; the
Flash platform provides web, desktop, and mobile runtimes, together with
fra- works, tools, servers, and services to enable designers and
developers to create high-impact experiences. Flash Player remains at
the core of the platform, with each release offering new capabilities
and further improving performance. Building upon the addition of a new
high-performance virtual machine for executing ActionScript code in
Flash Player 9, the release of Flash Player 10 adds support for 3D
transformations, custom filters and effects, advanced audio proce- ing,
and GPU hardware acceleration, enabling an entirely new class of
experiences not pre- ously achievable on the Web.