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I still haven't seen anything beat Flash with its sweet 1-2 combo of vector drawing, animation and programming tool Or maybe it's just me reminiscing

by d0100 4y ago

adamredwoods 4y ago
Scratch has some nice features: it has a sound editor, vector drawing, and primitive animation... but I agree, the Flash UX was the best. https://scratch.mit.edu/ https://scratch.mit.edu/
dncornholio 4y ago
I still use it to introduce students to coding.. ActionScript is amazing for this
goatlover 4y ago
The Flash Builder was really good for complex vector manipulation. I don't know if there is anything as good for SVG/HTML.
- dmitriid 4y ago
  > I don't know if there is anything as good for SVG/HTML. There's not because the DOM isn't suited for complex animations. People manage to animate SVGs (see Greensock etc.), but it's a pain in the nether regions
AshleysBrain 4y ago
It might not yet do everything, but we're having a go at a modern web-based animation tool with Construct Animate, currently in open beta: https://www.construct.net/en/blogs/construct-official-blog-1/announcing-new-product-beta-1589 https://www.construct.net/en/blogs/construct-official-blog-1... It can export videos, GIFs, image sequences, can use modern JavaScript coding, and has a surprisingly strong block-based visual alternative to coding.
- strix_varius 4y ago
  I'm sorry this isn't super actionable, but in case it's a helpful data point, I tried to check this out and wasn't able to. To repro: 1. Clicked on your link 2. Moused over "Construct 3" in the header, clicked "Showcase." 3. Clicked on a game in the showcase at random ("Bunnicula in Rescuing Harold"). 4. Page loaded with a graphic & a play button. 5. I tried clicking play & nothing happened. 6. Shortly after, Brave (Chrome) showed its "Page unresponsive" dialog.
  - zamadatix 4y ago
    Similar experience with using the showcase "AsteroidX" albeit no "unresponsive" dialog though just wouldn't load. It looks like the root of that issue is it requires 3rd party cookies to load but modern browsers block that by default and the error isn't bubbled up to the user. https://www.construct.net/en/free-online-games/asteroidx-650/play https://www.construct.net/en/free-online-games/asteroidx-650...
- zamadatix 4y ago
  If only web games were this smooth during my childhood :). Great stuff!
deltarholamda 4y ago
Flash was actually pretty great. The big problem with it was the "oh, that thing? it's still around?" attitude of Adobe, which led to massive security problems. Actionscript was a pretty good language, certainly around the level of what Javascript has become. It was poor-mouthed for the same reasons Javascript was (is?), but now we use Javascript to run 90% of the Web. I remember back in the early 00s playing with the PHP Flash module. It was a really interesting environment that had a lot of promise. But, alas, it was doomed.
- mind-blight 4y ago
  Action script 3 was actually pretty great. It was essentially a strongly typed JavaScript long before Typescript came out. I was always surprised that it didn't get more traction. Though Typescript is leaps and bounds beyond where AS3 ever was
rchaud 4y ago
Flash could do 3D 20 years ago, before WebGL and threeJS, and you didn't have to be a Javascript (or ActionScript) expert to build them. Nothing really exists that beats Flash, partially because the switch to mobile killed Flash's momentum. It also led to the switch in Internet content from Flash animations/toons/games to Youtube/Patreon/Twitch videos. It was easier to make money with weekly videos than trying to get Adsense bucks by making a game every few months.
Karawebnetwork 4y ago
One college near me still teaches 101 classes through Flash. When presented as an educational tool with disclaimers that the end result is not secure, it's a perfect product to teach with. You can take someone who does not even know how to turn on a computer and by the end of the class they understand what programming is, how to draw on a computer, vector vs bitmap, etc.

I still haven't seen anything beat Flash with its sweet 1-2 combo of vector drawing, animation and programming tool Or maybe it's just me reminiscing

by d0100 4y ago

I still haven't seen anything beat Flash with its sweet 1-2 combo of vector drawing, animation and programming tool Or maybe it's just me reminiscing

adamredwoods 4y ago

Scratch has some nice features: it has a sound editor, vector drawing, and primitive animation... but I agree, the Flash UX was the best. https://scratch.mit.edu/ https://scratch.mit.edu/

dncornholio 4y ago

I still use it to introduce students to coding.. ActionScript is amazing for this

goatlover 4y ago

The Flash Builder was really good for complex vector manipulation. I don't know if there is anything as good for SVG/HTML.

dmitriid 4y ago
> I don't know if there is anything as good for SVG/HTML. There's not because the DOM isn't suited for complex animations. People manage to animate SVGs (see Greensock etc.), but it's a pain in the nether regions

AshleysBrain 4y ago

It might not yet do everything, but we're having a go at a modern web-based animation tool with Construct Animate, currently in open beta: https://www.construct.net/en/blogs/construct-official-blog-1/announcing-new-product-beta-1589 https://www.construct.net/en/blogs/construct-official-blog-1... It can export videos, GIFs, image sequences, can use modern JavaScript coding, and has a surprisingly strong block-based visual alternative to coding.

strix_varius 4y ago
I'm sorry this isn't super actionable, but in case it's a helpful data point, I tried to check this out and wasn't able to. To repro: 1. Clicked on your link 2. Moused over "Construct 3" in the header, clicked "Showcase." 3. Clicked on a game in the showcase at random ("Bunnicula in Rescuing Harold"). 4. Page loaded with a graphic & a play button. 5. I tried clicking play & nothing happened. 6. Shortly after, Brave (Chrome) showed its "Page unresponsive" dialog.
- zamadatix 4y ago
  Similar experience with using the showcase "AsteroidX" albeit no "unresponsive" dialog though just wouldn't load. It looks like the root of that issue is it requires 3rd party cookies to load but modern browsers block that by default and the error isn't bubbled up to the user. https://www.construct.net/en/free-online-games/asteroidx-650/play https://www.construct.net/en/free-online-games/asteroidx-650...
zamadatix 4y ago
If only web games were this smooth during my childhood :). Great stuff!

deltarholamda 4y ago

Flash was actually pretty great. The big problem with it was the "oh, that thing? it's still around?" attitude of Adobe, which led to massive security problems. Actionscript was a pretty good language, certainly around the level of what Javascript has become. It was poor-mouthed for the same reasons Javascript was (is?), but now we use Javascript to run 90% of the Web. I remember back in the early 00s playing with the PHP Flash module. It was a really interesting environment that had a lot of promise. But, alas, it was doomed.

mind-blight 4y ago
Action script 3 was actually pretty great. It was essentially a strongly typed JavaScript long before Typescript came out. I was always surprised that it didn't get more traction. Though Typescript is leaps and bounds beyond where AS3 ever was

rchaud 4y ago

Flash could do 3D 20 years ago, before WebGL and threeJS, and you didn't have to be a Javascript (or ActionScript) expert to build them. Nothing really exists that beats Flash, partially because the switch to mobile killed Flash's momentum. It also led to the switch in Internet content from Flash animations/toons/games to Youtube/Patreon/Twitch videos. It was easier to make money with weekly videos than trying to get Adsense bucks by making a game every few months.

Karawebnetwork 4y ago

One college near me still teaches 101 classes through Flash. When presented as an educational tool with disclaimers that the end result is not secure, it's a perfect product to teach with. You can take someone who does not even know how to turn on a computer and by the end of the class they understand what programming is, how to draw on a computer, vector vs bitmap, etc.