FeaturesAndLimitations

Features and Limitations

All the Pros and Cons of using such thing as Redtamarin.

What come with the platform AVM2+AS3

using the ActionScript 3.0 language
- low barrier to entry
- rapid flexible development
- familiar (C syntax, similar to Java)
- pervasive (the web wouldn't compile)
using AVM2 goodness
- open source (Tamarin, Avmplus)
- safe, predictable and efficient
- cross-platform
  - support multiple architectures
    Intel, PPC, ARM, etc.
  - support multiple operating systems
    Windows, macOS, Linux, etc.
  - support 32-bit and 64-bit
- fast startup speed
  - starts faster than Java
  - starts faster than Node.js
- small memory footprint
  - single redtamarin process is ~5MB
  - less than Java
  - less than Node.js
- just-in-time compiler
- garbage collector
- debugging
- bytecode
- Run-time engine
- used for more than a decade in Flash and Adobe AIR
- supports AS3
- supports JS (ECMA-262 3rd ed)
- support E4X
using pre-existing tooling
- Flash Builder IDE
  - syntax completion from SWC
  - compile from the IDE
- Flex SDK
  - open source
  - compilers (ASC, MXMLC, COMPC)
  - documentation asdoc
- Debuggers
- Scout CC
reuse Flash Platform technology
- ActionScript Bytecode (ABC)
- SWF, SWC formats
- ByteArray
  - multiple instances
  - shareable between workers
- Actionscript Message Format (AMF)
  - fast and extremely efficient
  - binary format
  - serialisation / deseralisation
  - support types
- Concurrency ActionScript Workers
- etc.

What come with the Redtamarin

Cross-platform API
- C API
  - POSIX everywhere (Windows too)
  - port scripts (bash/perl/etc.) to AS3
  - port small/medium C programs to AS3
  - "as if" you were writing C/C++ but easier
- Redtamarin Native Library API (RNL)
  - Operaring System
  - File System
  - Streams
  - Sockets
  - ...
- AVMGlue API
  open source implementation of
  the Flash and Adobe AIR API
cross-platform runtime
- Windows, macOS, Linux
- 32-bit, 64-bit
Tools
- redshell
- redtamarin
- redbean
- as3shebang
CLI support
- a mature platform for building CLIs
- shell scripts
- interactive shell
  (local, remote, etc.)
- Read-Eval-Print-Loop (REPL)
- command-line executables
- daemons / background services
Server-side support
- CGI
- FastCGI (planed)
- Multi-threaded (planed)
New Projectors
- merge the redshell
  with your ABC or SWF program
- no dependencies
- no need to have something pre-installed it works "as is"
more ...

SWF format support
- only support doABC tags
- you can not embed assets like images sounds, etc.
- ...
Flash API support
- a lot of API are missing
- does not support any rendering
- forget about MovieClip and display list
- forget about Stage3D, etc.
Adobe AIR support
- a lot of API are missing
- does not support ActionScript Native Extension
support only Intel CPU
- Avmplus support ARM architecture
  but Redtamarin sources have not been ported to ARM
- same for PPC, SH4, Mips, etc.
more ...