Ah, the simple, venerable trace command. Everyone who has ever written even a single line of ActionScript -- from the newbiest of designers to the most seasoned programming professional -- has doubtless become intimately familiar with this most basic, approachable, and useful command. But love turns to hate if you ever need to see what's going on when your Flash movie is playing in a browser, where seeing a simple trace can rapidly become an exercise in frustration. Fret no longer, fearless readers, as this guide aims to get everyone in on that sweet, sweet browser tracing action.

Let's face facts, folks: sometimes just scaling your entire Flash movie to an arbitrary window size won't cut it. A prime example of one of those times would be if you're using Flash to create Web-based applications, where your users would rightfully expect to have the application interface scale intelligently to the size of their browser window. Flex Builder can do this through a simple GUI panel, but the process is a little more involved if you're using Flash CS4 Professional, which is where we'll pick things up.

It's been a while, but Adobe's announcement of Flash Platform Services for Distribution (which we'll shorten to AFPSD for the duration) begs for the not-quite-famous "fake FAQ" treatment, where your humble host asks made-up questions of, well, himself in an attempt to make further sense of the official AFPSD press release. With that as the setup, let's get to those "frequently asked questions."

It seems that every time Adobe announces anything having to do with the Flash Platform, there is always an accompanying opportunity to talk to a representative from EffectiveUI, a Denver-based Rich Internet Application (RIA) provider which boasts a current staff of 79 and also has offices in Rochester, NY and Vancouver. As EffectiveUI is in the enviable position of getting to develop new and cool interfaces against very early versions of Adobe technology, a chance to speak with Anthony Franco, EffectiveUI's president, about Flash Player 10 and where the platform is going was too good to pass up.