3 ms·

Had adobe freed and invested in standardizing flash, the web could be a very different place today.

by marcodiego 5y ago

boibombeiro 5y ago
PDF only became open in 2008 and its doing pretty well.
- marcodiego 5y ago
  There was interest, or it was simple enough to allow open source implementation to flourish. Even in 2008 there was plenty highly FLOSS to create and view PDF. Flash, OTOH, was a mess. Also, PDF specification was available since 1993: https://web.archive.org/web/20150617123515/http://acroeng.adobe.com/PDFReference/PDF%20Reference%201.0.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20150617123515/http://acroeng.ad...
  - ylee 5y ago
    >There was interest, or it was simple enough to allow open source implementation to flourish. I used Applix Word to produce my résumé in PDF format when applying to jobs during senior year of college, 1998-1999. I don't remember if Applix itself generated the PDF from its .aw format, or if I used some other tool, but either way I had no trouble doing so from Linux.
monocasa 5y ago
From what I heard, Adobe couldn't even standardize Flash internally. Flash player was apparently internally a dozen or so Flash runtimes that everyone was afraid to touch except to cut a new version on top of the others.
- liuliu 5y ago
  Agreed. Flash to me is a demonstration how badly managed software project (particularly when core teams were gone) can doom a promising business.
- jan_Inkepa 5y ago
  On the plus side, it was the most stable web technology out there for over a decade.(with regards to backwards compatibility)
pjmlp 5y ago
They tried, here WebAssembly before it was even an idea, https://adobe-flash.github.io/crossbridge/ https://adobe-flash.github.io/crossbridge/ We are still catching up with 2011.
rvieira 5y ago
I never worked with Flash/AS, but I remember some tools targeting SWF (OpenLaszlo, Haxe). Did they reverse-engineered the spec? Or was there some sort of Flash specification available in some form?
- fenomas 5y ago
  The format (swf) is an open standard, since... around 2008ish? ActionScript goes further, the VM itself is open source (as Mozilla Tamarin).

Had adobe freed and invested in standardizing flash, the web could be a very different place today.

boibombeiro 5y ago

PDF only became open in 2008 and its doing pretty well.

marcodiego 5y ago
There was interest, or it was simple enough to allow open source implementation to flourish. Even in 2008 there was plenty highly FLOSS to create and view PDF. Flash, OTOH, was a mess. Also, PDF specification was available since 1993: https://web.archive.org/web/20150617123515/http://acroeng.adobe.com/PDFReference/PDF%20Reference%201.0.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20150617123515/http://acroeng.ad...
- ylee 5y ago
  >There was interest, or it was simple enough to allow open source implementation to flourish. I used Applix Word to produce my résumé in PDF format when applying to jobs during senior year of college, 1998-1999. I don't remember if Applix itself generated the PDF from its .aw format, or if I used some other tool, but either way I had no trouble doing so from Linux.

monocasa 5y ago

From what I heard, Adobe couldn't even standardize Flash internally. Flash player was apparently internally a dozen or so Flash runtimes that everyone was afraid to touch except to cut a new version on top of the others.

liuliu 5y ago
Agreed. Flash to me is a demonstration how badly managed software project (particularly when core teams were gone) can doom a promising business.
jan_Inkepa 5y ago
On the plus side, it was the most stable web technology out there for over a decade.(with regards to backwards compatibility)

pjmlp 5y ago

They tried, here WebAssembly before it was even an idea, https://adobe-flash.github.io/crossbridge/ https://adobe-flash.github.io/crossbridge/ We are still catching up with 2011.

rvieira 5y ago

I never worked with Flash/AS, but I remember some tools targeting SWF (OpenLaszlo, Haxe). Did they reverse-engineered the spec? Or was there some sort of Flash specification available in some form?

fenomas 5y ago
The format (swf) is an open standard, since... around 2008ish? ActionScript goes further, the VM itself is open source (as Mozilla Tamarin).