3 ms·

To be fair those things you couldn't do in the web, like intros and text fly-ins, were really obnoxious. That's what got Flash a lot of hate (and rightly so).

by kaoD 11y ago

To be fair those things you couldn't do in the web, like intros and text fly-ins, were really obnoxious. That's what got Flash a lot of hate (and rightly so). What made Flash great were games, video, real-time communication (e.g. web chats) and cartoons. Flash was great as its own medium, even if embedded in the web (not replacing it). Shoehorning Flash into the web medium was a mistake, just as obnoxious as now is hijacking the scroll or adding thousands of fade-ins in HTML5 (which fortunately as a fad seems to be dying).

fenomas 11y ago
People forget though, web designers didn't start using Flash to replace the web for kicks - HTML sucked pretty hard as a visual medium in those days. Just getting a page to lay out similarly across NS/IE/mac/PC was a serious challenge, let alone getting the text to show up at the same size or in the same font, or scripts to run the same way, or having any kind of interactivity. Obviously HTML has always been the best medium for marked-up text, but for pages whose value came from interactivity or design, Flash was simply a better medium for a long time - its entire heyday plus 1-2 years beyond, IMO.
- arbitrage 11y ago
  > Just getting a page to lay out similarly across NS/IE/mac/PC was a serious challenge, let alone getting the text to show up at the same size or in the same font, or scripts to run the same way, or having any kind of interactivity. Hardly the fault of HTML, a layout markup language. Put the blame where it's due, on a non-cooperative, or rather openly combative, market place.
  - fenomas 11y ago
    > Put the blame.. I was just trying to deflect the blame from Flash. ;) But yeah, HTML's woes were due to browsers not cooperating, but then until their lunch was getting eaten I don't suppose they had any incentive to. To me, the Story of the Open Web is one that validates both standardization and proprietary innovation, in that sense.

by kaoD 11y ago

fenomas 11y ago

People forget though, web designers didn't start using Flash to replace the web for kicks - HTML sucked pretty hard as a visual medium in those days. Just getting a page to lay out similarly across NS/IE/mac/PC was a serious challenge, let alone getting the text to show up at the same size or in the same font, or scripts to run the same way, or having any kind of interactivity. Obviously HTML has always been the best medium for marked-up text, but for pages whose value came from interactivity or design, Flash was simply a better medium for a long time - its entire heyday plus 1-2 years beyond, IMO.

arbitrage 11y ago
> Just getting a page to lay out similarly across NS/IE/mac/PC was a serious challenge, let alone getting the text to show up at the same size or in the same font, or scripts to run the same way, or having any kind of interactivity. Hardly the fault of HTML, a layout markup language. Put the blame where it's due, on a non-cooperative, or rather openly combative, market place.
- fenomas 11y ago
  > Put the blame.. I was just trying to deflect the blame from Flash. ;) But yeah, HTML's woes were due to browsers not cooperating, but then until their lunch was getting eaten I don't suppose they had any incentive to. To me, the Story of the Open Web is one that validates both standardization and proprietary innovation, in that sense.