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tbtlr
gordon
JavaScript2010–2020
tbtlr / gordon

gordon

An open source Flash™ runtime written in pure JavaScript

Web DevelopmentLanguages & Compilers
Explore on GitHubRead Hacker News discussions
19Distinct people
20Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
1.8KGitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

An open source Flash™ runtime written in pure JavaScript

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use was verified in the last source check.

What people are saying

No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 3:56:07 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by year20 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2010-01-13 16:54:36 UTC to 2020-07-25 09:54:55 UTC.

02468102010-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2011-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 9 mentions; 1 submissions, 8 comments20102011-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 4 mentions; 0 submissions, 4 comments2012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments20152016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 1 submissions, 0 comments2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 0 submissions, 2 comments2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2020

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
20102010-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2011-01-01 00:00:00 UTC918
20112011-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC404
20122012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20132013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20142014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20152015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20162016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC110
20172017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC202
20182018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20192019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20202020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101

What Hacker News says

20 sources
efreak·Jul 25, 2020
There's been a few flash runtimes in javascript and other languages. Most of them have been long abandoned. https://github.com/tobeytailor/gordon https://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/ In development: https://github.com/lightspark/lightspark https://github.com/ruffle-rs/ruffle And then the most recent one, CheerpX, which as I understand it runs the Adobe flash runtime itself via wasm: https://leaningtech.com/pages/cheerpxflash.html Which brings me to Java. Java left the browser even before flash did. Not all of these are javascript jvms, but all of them are intended to run Java applications in the browser (some are transpilers, others require code changes): https://leaningtech.com/pages/cheerpj.html https://github.com/java2script/java2script (this links to some less-complete projects) https://github.com/Jivings/jsJVM https://github.com/nurv/
Read the rest
BicaVM https://github.com/st-js/st-js/ https://github.com/plasma-umass/doppio https://github.com/jtulach/bck2brwsr https://www.keithschwarz.com/+script/ https://github.com/robterrell/orto https://github.com/jdstroy/JavaPoly https://gitlab.com/neoexpert/jvm/-/blob/master/jsjvm/README....
In On how Flash games shaped the video game industry
myfonj·Jul 28, 2018
For those eager to directly witness some SWF running in JavaScript: http://mozilla.github.io/shumway/examples/racing/ (via aforementioned https://github.com/mozilla/shumway/ ) http://gordonjs.s3.amazonaws.com/trip.html (via https://github.com/tobytailor/gordon/wiki ) https://google-developers.appspot.com/swiffy/showcase/snake_... (not reading SWF directly but running converted script; via https://developers.google.com/swiffy/showcase/ )
In Adobe Flash’s Gaming Legacy and My Efforts To Save It
chriswarbo·Jan 6, 2015
> Plenty of sites that were archived have their whole UI in flash, so for those sites the pages are pretty much empty pages without flash. Nevertheless, it's still a smaller problem than, for example, broken links. Firstly, the number of sites relying completely on Flash is relatively small, eg. compared to those which rely on hyperlinks (indexes or reading lists). Second, there is less urgency to fix Flash sites compared to mitigating link rot: as long as the SWF content is archived, it can be converted/re-implemented at a later date. On the other hand, links are failing all the time, which requires immediate, persistent action (crawling). Thirdly, there is a subjective argument about whether Flash sites are part of the Web or not, and hence whether this is much of a problem. At some point, an archive must draw a line and say "this is no
Read the rest
t Web content"; for example, archiving videos, or FTP sites, or Linux ISOs, or the content referred to by torrents or magnet links, or Windows EXEs, etc. It's an arguable choice to ignore Flash content completely. It's also an arguable choice to archive the Flash content but not care whether it runs. Of course it's also legitimate to want Flash to work seamlessly in the browser, but that's not the only position. > I'm not aware of any JS-powered flash implementation There are a few. A quick Google search reveals https://github.com/tobytailor/gordon/wiki and http://mozilla.github.io/shumway/ . At a stretch, Free Software, non-JS players like https://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/ , http://lightspark.github.io/ and http://swfdec.freedesktop.org/wiki/ could be ported to emscripten. > or how that would solve anything since presumably that would come with all of the drawbacks that the non-JS powered flash implementations of today have (and that we are so keen on getting rid of). Of course they have all the same problems (and more, since they're not fully compatible); but that's irrelevant. Backwards compatibility only requires that the stuff we used to do is still possible. If we send an un-screen-readable, un-keyboard-navigable mess of a Flash site to a perfectly compatible JS-based Flash implementation, we should hope to get an un-screen-readable, un-keyboard-navigable mess as well. As an analogy, it's a good idea to write an emulator for the Sinclair Spectrum, so that Spectrum games remain playable on new hardware. This does not mean that a) emulating a Spectrum game must produce modern-looking 3D, immersive, high-def, 24-bit colour graphics with surround sound; or b) that the existence of a Spectrum emulator should make the Spectrum a valid target platform for new commercial game development.
In Movement to get rid of Adobe Flash started 3 years ago. Flash is still alive
robterrell·Nov 12, 2011
If you're thinking about using this, you might also consider Gordon (https://github.com/tobeytailor/gordon) or Smokescreen (https://github.com/cesmoak/smokescreen). Gordon's simpler -- very easy to follow code. Whereas Smokescreen, like Swiffy, offers support for audio and AS2. I integrated Gordon into my HTML5 game yesterday to render a walk cycle SWF and the framerate didn't drop. I'm going to do the same thing with Smokescreen next.
In Have a Flash SWF File? convert it to HTML5 with Google Swiffy
amadiver·Jan 13, 2011
Let's elevate this conversation beyond the usual conventional wisdom and rhetoric: Flash is not "demonstrably, prima facie" closed. Really, `tptacek`, it takes almost no independent search to come to a murkier conclusion. Interestingly, while the Flash IDE is most definitely closed, the SWF file format and the tools to create SWFs... it's not so cut and dry. Here's the (Flash 10 SWF Spec)[http://www.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/devnet/swf/pdf/swf...] There's probably a bunch of stuff left out that'd make implementation difficult, but that hasn't stopped: (GORDON)[https://github.com/tobeytailor/gordon] -- an open source Flash runtime written in pure JavaScript . It only supports up to Flash v. 2; almost useless, but interesting. Here's the (Flex SDK)[http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Flex+SDK] which includes the Flex fra
Read the rest
mework, and a partially open source SWF compiler. Apparently, Flex compiler isn't totally open source because of patents concerning audio and video codecs (I'm recalling this off the top of my head; please verify). Here's (Tamarin)[http://www.mozilla.org/projects/tamarin/]. It's a VM for EcmaScript. It's been rolled into SpiderMonkey, the JS engine for FireFox, I think. It includes support for packages, namespaces, classes, and optional strict typing of variables. Really useful stuff for interactive devs that, unfortunately, hasn't been widely adopted. Adobe contributes to WebKit on behalf of Flash & Air; I don't know what their contributions have been/how useful they are, though. I'm a professional interactive dev, and I specialize in Flash, so you might conclude that I'd be biased, and I wouldn't blame you at all. However, as a Flash dev, I'm familiar with the non-marketed vectors of the Flash environment. Take that as you will. We're geeks: let's all invest a little time to investigate the rhetoric. If you really don't like Flash, pick another reason: there are many ;)
In 10 Questions for John Gruber Regarding H.264, WebM
mtigas·May 29, 2010
This looks a lot like Gordon (http://github.com/tobeytailor/gordon) — a JS implementation of Flash. In which case, the point is that you don’t need a service to convert your files — your SWF files would work as-is. Ideally — provided JS performance catches up — you simply re-tool your templates to use the JS runtime (rather than embed tags) to run your SWF file. In fact, looking at the source of http://smokescreen.us/demos/lyrisdemo.html it’s conceivable that you could use Flash if available, but fallback to Smokescreen/Gordon otherwise (likely testing for HTML5 support first). That link is also a great example of how easy it would be for an ad agency to continue to use their existing resources for Flashless, HTML5-ready devices. Is there any relation between the Smokescreen and Gordon projects? I haven’t heard of the latter in a while.
In Converting Flash to HTML5 (StrongBad Demo)

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