Because SM also needed a new content manager for Anime Studio.

It was their desire to have a single component be the library content manager for all their graphical apps. A single technology shared by all operating systems as well.

The technology used in Poser is not the same as in Anime Studio nor Manga Studio.

So - given that the authors of the three programs are not going to rewrite to a common language and API, the solution seemed to be to introduce, as easily as possible, a common language engine into all.

That common language engine is Flash.

Later, Flash for 64-bit was not available, but it was possible to build an AIR version with only modest effort, sharing 95% of the code from the Flash version. So I did that, too.

The strategy is not flawless, but I have now upgraded the UI three times and all SM products that use it have been pretty close to seamlessly upgraded in functionality. It has also been translated into multiple languages without touching the code.

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Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)