Winks

On the last past week i've been trying to implement Winks (those flash animations) on monkey messenger. I changed msnp-sharp to get it working. The good news is that i can get it transfered. The bad news is that there is no decent flash API on linux. Here is the options:

- Just use gecko and the flash plugin: This option may sound easy, but i didn't find a way to detect the animation end to close the window.
- Use gnash. Gnash is quite good, it plays all the winks animation i have tried. But a C glue library would be necessary to make C# bindings and use it.
- Use swfdec. This one also plays all the winks i have tried but it would be necessary to re-use the existing gtk widget on the source tree and make bindings to C#. Would be easier than using gnash afaik.
- Use flashplayer from macromedia. It would certainly work, but there is no library and i can't make the standalone flashplayer gtk window transparent. I would also have to call an external executable that would sux.

There is also one more problem. The winks comes in a .cab file. There is no managed .cab extractor for .net. There is libmspack and the cabextract program. They both work but the first would need C# bindings and the second would sux. It would be easy to extend sharpziplib and implement .cab extraction i think. This would be a better solution.

So folks, i gave up on winks for now because i was wasting too much time doing it and there are more important things to do on monkey messenger. On the source tree there is a Wink plugin which works by half and is unfinished. I will not touch it until:

- There is a managed way to extract .cab files;
- There is a decent and easy way to play flash animations on linux.

If you want to see this happening you would:

- Read swfdec source at the player folder and implement a gtk# widget that uses libswfdec to play movies, so we can add it to a transparent gtk window using composition.

- Implement a .cab extesion to sharpziplib

- Contact me!

Thanks :)