Time.
Today marks the public launch of IFBIN, a new company led by Ted Patrick. IFBIN is a code distribution service that provides example software for learning and reuse. The core focus is two products - Flash by Example, and Flex by Example.
Visit the website to find a beta download for the IFBIN service which provides access to the examples. Currently the download is for Windows users only, but a Mac version is on the way.
The IFBIN service will save you time. How many times has the following happened to you...
You get an idea for something that you don't quite know how to implement. You search online, spend 30 minutes following links that don't pan out, ask around on mailing lists and wait for answers that don't really help at all, but finally stumble upon some code on some website. You download the code and try to use it, but there's no documentation at all. You end up getting syntax errors all over the place, or realized that you needed to download a supporting class that wasn't included but was part of some class library that you search on the internet for but can't find except that when you do find it the installation process is a nightmare, etc, etc, etc.
How much time do you spend finding "solutions" that don't work or that are broken or that can't be extended easily or that don't do anything to help you understand the problem in the first place?
IFBIN is about saving time. It takes one click to install an example. After the automated installation process completes, open up the example, compile it, and see it work. Every time. The examples are well documented so not only do they work out of the box, but you can actually understand what the code is doing.
IFBIN is Great Software Examples by Industry Experts. As Rob stated, the author list reads like a "Who's Who" in the Flash community, of which I'm very excited to be a part of.
The example pool is continuously growing, and we're just starting to build steam. If there's anything you'd be particularly interested in seeing, speak up. Examples can range from code snippets to frameworks to full applications, and nothing is out of bounds.
This is going to be a wild ride.. hang on!
"How much time do you spend finding "solutions" that don't work or that are broken or that can't be extended easily or that don't do anything to help you understand the problem in the first place?"
One week and counting. :)
what a piece of crap this is. I downloaded and installed it and it doesn't work worth a damn. All it does when I click on the find examples is launch FireFox and just doesn't open up any pages.
Sorry to say but if this is the beta, I'm glad I didn't download the alpha.
Tony, I'm sorry to hear that the beta didn't appear to be working for you. May I ask you for more information about your problem? When you say that it doesn't open up any pages, what is in the URL address bar? Is the page simply blank, or does it time out after a certain period of time?
What should happen is that the beta will launch a browser window open to a page like http://localhost:1025/, at which point you should see a .swf file for "Flash by Example" or "Flex by Example." The Flash by Example button is the only one that works at the moment. Clicking it should bring you to http://localhost:1025/flash/ which is another .swf file that lets you browse categories, see the examples, and just interact with the system in general.
Can you tell me more about your system? What version of the Flash Player do you have installed? What version of FireFox are you using? And finally, are you on Windows XP?
Thanks...
Well I decided to give it another try since your post and the same thing. I did see that it does create a log file for the errors and opened it up. Here are the errors:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "twisted\internet\default.pyc", line 526, in doSelect
File "twisted\python\log.pyc", line 65, in callWithLogger
File "twisted\python\log.pyc", line 52, in callWithContext
File "twisted\python\context.pyc", line 43, in callWithContext
--- ---
File "twisted\internet\default.pyc", line 535, in _doReadOrWrite
File "twisted\internet\tcp.pyc", line 255, in doRead
File "service.py", line 253, in dataReceived
File "service.py", line 380, in httpWriter
File "service.py", line 104, in getCache
zlib.error: Error -3 while decompressing data: unknown compression method
I though that maybe this occurred because I did not have Python installed on my machine. I downloaded and installed the latest version and still nothing. I'm running XP Pro SP2. If you want to send the error to Ted them fine. Personally I'm disgusted with this and I'm not going to waste anymore time with it.
Looks like a great idea to me! Hopefully people will have patience while the beta takes the course that all betas do....ironing out the wrinkles. I'll keep watching to see what exciting content will come to be there.
Obviously the content of the service will prove to be its making. :)
Tony,
I fixed this error for the next release. The system is autologging bugs and this seems to be one of the most common. This is actually an Internet connection releated error with some verions of windows.
Tony send me an email at ted-at-ifbin.com and I will make sure your covered.
This is exactly why we have a beta test in the first place. Thanks for posting the bug.
Ted ;)
IFBIN provides little to no value for the end user, while also working against the great and growing momentum of open source development and knowledge sharing which is available and affordable to all!
The name itself offers the best indication of where this 'product' is best placed!
Laren,
In case you missed it, IFBIN is open source. 100% of code is licensed under a modified BSD License. Yes you have to pay for it but you do get full documented and approved source. Open source doesn't mean free.
It is pretty unfair to judge a product when you are not an end user, you have seen 1% of the current product in downloading the beta.
We have some early customers who have been using IFBIN and their feedback has been extrememly positive. They had positive ROI with IFBIN in the first month of use. They shipped a product using IFBIN code to a consulting client with much success.
IFBIN is not for everyone and we fully expect that some in the open source community would feel as you do. There is value in what we are doing, even if you do not see it.
Regards,
Ted Patrick
IFBIN Founder