Gnash

Infobox Software
name = Gnash



caption = Screenshot of Gnash 0.8.0 GTK+ GUI with test SWF file
maintainer = Rob Savoye
developer = Rob Savoye, Sandro Santilli, Bastiaan Jacques, Vitaly Alexeev, Tomas Groth, Udo Giacomozzi, Hannes Mayr, Markus Gothe, Ann Barcomb.
latest_release_version = 0.8.3
latest_release_date = release date|2008|06|17
operating_system = Cross-platform
genre = Interpreter, Media player
license = GNU General Public License
website = http://www.gnashdev.org/

The Gnash project aims to create a free player and browser plugin for the Adobe Flash file format and replace the proprietary software niche currently occupied by Adobe Flash Player. It developed from the GPLFlash project. Gnash is released under the GNU General Public License.

Gnash was first announced by software developer John Gilmore. The current lead developer is Rob Savoye.

History

Writing a free software Flash player has been a priority of the GNU project for some time. [ cite web | url = http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority.html | title = High Priority Free Software Projects | accessdate = 2008-08-05 ] Prior to the launch of Gnash, the GNU project had asked for people to assist the GPLFlash project. The majority of the previous GPLFlash developers have now moved to the Gnash project and the existing GPLFlash codebase will be refocused towards supporting embedded systems. [ cite web | url = http://gplflash.sourceforge.net/ | title = GPLFlash homepage | accessdate = 2007-04-17 ]

The primary distribution terms for Gnash are those of the GNU GPL. However since Gnash was started using the codebase of the GameSWF project, which is in the public domain, code developed by the Gnash project which might be useful in GameSWF is placed in the public domain. [ cite web | url = http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/gnash/2005-12/msg00000.html | title = Welcome to the Gnash project! | first = John | last = Gilmore | work = Gnash mailing list | accessdate = 2006-12-28 |date= 20 December 2005 ]

Technical details

Adobe provides an official player for GNU/Linux on x86 in a binary-only form. It does not support Linux users with other processor architectures. [cite web | url=http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=6b3af6c9 | title=Adobe TechNote: Flash Player support on 64-bit operating systems | publisher=Adobe | accessdate=2007-04-22] Gnash, however, can be compiled and executed on many architectures, including x86, AMD64, MIPS/Irix, and PowerPC. It also supports BSD-based operating systems. An early port for RISC OS, which has never had Macromedia/Adobe Flash support beyond Flash 3, [cite web | url=http://osnews.com/story.php?news_id=16552 | title=RISC OS To Get Flash, Word Support | publisher = Thom Holwerda, osnews.com | accessdate=2007-04-22] does exist, as well as an early port for BeOS, where Flash support terminated at Version 4. [cite web | url=http://joomla.iscomputeron.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=924 | title=Gnash for BeOS (Take 2) | publisher=DaaT, joomla.iscomputeron.com | accessdate=2007-04-22]

Flash actually consists of two different file types, SWF, often incorrectly referred to as "Flash", which provides animated vector graphics for menus and presentations and FLV, often referred to as "Flash Video", which provides streaming video clips for websites such as YouTube.

Currently, Gnash can play SWF files up to version 7, as well as some features of the new version 8– 9 files. Gnash supports playback of FLV videos and allows playing FLV files from YouTube, MySpace, ShowMeDo and other similar websites. FLV support requires FFmpeg or GStreamer to be installed on the system. [cite web | url=http://savannah.gnu.org/task/?5930 | title=Task #5930 on GNU Gnash Savannah Site | publisher = Gnash Developers | accessdate=2007-04-22]

Some other free-software programs, such as MPlayer, [cite web | url=http://ffmpeg.mplayerhq.hu/ffmpeg-doc.html#SEC24 | title=FFmpeg Documentation - Supported Video Formats | publisher = MPlayer Developers | accessdate=2007-04-22] VLC media player [cite web | url=http://www.videolan.org/vlc/features.html | title=VideoLAN Client Features List | publisher = VideoLAN Developers | accessdate=2007-04-22] or players for Windows based on the ffdshow DirectShow codecs can play back the FLV format if the file is specially downloaded or piped to it.

The goal of the Gnash developers is to be as compatible as possible with the proprietary player (including behavior on bad ActionScript code). However, Gnash offers some special features not available in the Adobe player, such as the possibility to extend the ActionScript classes via shared libraries: sample extensions include MySQL support, file system access and more. For security reasons the extension mechanism must be compiled-in explicitly and enabled via configuration files.

Gnash requires one of AGG, Cairo, or OpenGL for rendering. In contrast to most GNU projects, which are typically written in C, Gnash is written in the C++ programming language because of its GameSWF heritage. [cite web | url=http://www.gnashdev.org/?q=node/25#c++ | title=Why do you use C++ and not C? FAQ entry | publisher=Gnash Project | accessdate=2008-07-14]

See also

* Swfdec
* swfmill
* MTASC
* Ming library

References

External links

* [http://www.gnashdev.org/ Primary Gnash website]
* [http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/ Gnash at GNU Project]
* [http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/gnash/ Gnash's Savannah Page]
* [http://lwn.net/Articles/166992/ FSF/GNU Press Release: FSF announces GNU Gnash - Flash Movie Player]
* [http://blogs.zdnet.com/Stewart/index.php?p=177 An interview with Gnash project leader about the future of the product]