Phlow Flash OS

[phil.harlow]

Hey guys,

This is a project I'm working on, trying to create a functioning OS in flash, with a php backend. You can upload files, drag and drop, etc.

More functionality and application added weekly, any and all feedback is appreciated!

Drop a note in the Comments App or here in this thread.

What do you think about the Phlow logo when you first pull up the page?

Thanks!

http://beta.philharlow.com?e=fkms

[gerbick]

Reminds me a bit like Jooce. I'll play around and post back shortly. But first impressions... it loaded up quickly, actually liked Firefox, but it took me a second to read that logo.

Also, the fact that you have only vertical scrollers when you need horizontal - open up the sea turtle jpeg. It's resolved via resizing the resultant popup... but that part didn't seem right.

[phil.harlow]

Thanks for taking a look gerbick. I am going to change the way it handles pictures, just spent most of my time on the media player ha, but I appreciate the feedback.
Also, thanks for the link to Jooce. I've never seen that before, thats pretty cool.

[MikeInkJunior]

very sweet design. I loved the special detail you put into the music section. I'm browsing the site and love the little icons.

Loading is fast and opening different sections work great

[phil.harlow]

Thanks Mike! I am open to any ideas and suggestions, and know theres a ton of bugs and memory leaks so any feedback helps!
darksignsonline.com is currently building a terminal to interface their backend hacksim game that will load up in Phlow, so stay tuned for updates!

Thanks fk!

[raveneye]

Just curious...why did you have a custom mouse cursor that looks almost like the actual "default" mouse cursor?

[phil.harlow]

Just curious...why did you have a custom mouse cursor that looks almost like the actual "default" mouse cursor?

So I could have cursors like a hand, loading sign and arrows when youre resizing a window.
Is there js that can change the system cursor? It'd be nice to not have flash hide the mouse since it freaks out elsewhere when the page is open

[raveneye]

hmm I see the predicament.

Well think of it when you need the mouse cursor to actually change to arrows sign or loading sign.

When your resizing a window the mouse is not released yet so you can put a Mouse.onPress function to change the cursor to that resizing window icon and Mouse.onRelease function to change it back to original.

You don't have to to hide the mouse cursor when you want to show a loading bar - you could have a loading sand clock next to the mouse just off set it a bit.

I hope this shows an alternative to hiding the mouse solution. Personally I always found it "bad layout design" when a users mouse is manipulated to achieve small effects which generally overlooks the users perspective being "I like my mouse cursor! give back my mouse cursor!".

I was trying to build something like this about 2 years back, couldnt go as far as you did. But you wanna maintain the CPU usage though, I think getting rid of the custom cursor will aid you somewhat. After all your building an OS interface which must be smooth, efficient and fast at all cost for usability purposes, right?

Keep up the excellent work mate

cheers

sunny

[phil.harlow]

Thanks for the input raveneye. I went ahead and just disabled the Mouse.hide() calls, and for the most part its just as usuable, without the annoying bits of flash hiding the cursor when it shouldnt. Thanks for the tip.

About the CPU usage, I know I have some (well.. lots) of memory leaks, but I'm not exactly sure how to go in and fix them. Reading about as3's GC makes it sound too random for me not knowing what to look for to test against. The little box to the left of the clock shows the current size in megs of the Phlow app in the browser. You can watch the graph and number skyrocket when loading new content (mp3s, flvs), and it never goes back down after you close the window. I've been trying to remove all event listeners and set all references to null, but obviously am missing stuff. Is there an easy way to track this stuff down?

Also, I also updated Phlow with thumbnail previews and more video support. Soon I will build a little FMS app to demonstrate recording and playback, but for now I appreciate the comments and suggestions!