5 ms·

Flash is the new Internet Explorer. I remember a point in time when it was painful to use browsers other than IE, because so many developers took the easy way o

by mvip 15y ago

Flash is the new Internet Explorer. I remember a point in time when it was painful to use browsers other than IE, because so many developers took the easy way out and only supported IE (and their managers didn't know/care). Those days are of course over (well, mostly at least). Flash is, or at least used to be, the easy way out. People used it because it was easier than HTML5. Hence, when a company asks for a quote on an interactive site they often went for the Flash-version because it was cheaper (and not fully knowing the drawbacks). Apple forced a change in the market. All of the sudden, these people who ordered the new project in Flash realized that they couldn't view the content on their shiny new toy. You might argue the ability of using Flash as an option. I see the fact that both Apple (and now Google) have actively taken a stance against Flash as something good for the society as a whole. It's a step towards better, and more open standards. This isn't to say that Flash is completely useless. Not too long ago, it wasn't even possible to do interactive things with HTML. At that point, Flash was the only option. Luckily, those days are over.

nextparadigms 15y ago
> You might argue the ability of using Flash as an option. I see the fact that both Apple (and now Google have) actively taken a stance against Flash as something good for the society as a whole. It's a step towards better, and more open standards. If only Apple took the same stance regarding video codecs, too, and embrace WebM. But the truth is they support what is convenient for them at the time. If it also happens to help the society in the long term - great. But it's not their main priority.
- mvip 15y ago
  Yeah, you're right. Apple isn't only killing Flash because it is good for the society. They're doing it because the user experience would suffer. That isn't the case with video codecs unfortunately, but it would have been great if Apple did embrace WebM, but I don't see that happening in a near future.
tomkin 15y ago
> People who used it because it was easier than HTML5. Having developed both HTML5 and Flash applications, your use of the word was shows a bit of ignorance when it comes to Flash. It is still easier in Flash to do a high-velocity, interactive site that works across multiple browsers. If you think differently, you're not actually doing the work. Armchair critics of Flash just regurgitate what they perceive is truth – HTML5's abilities are on par with Flash. But it isn't true. To be clear, my support is with HTML5, not Flash. But as someone who works with both daily, I'd be pretty biased if I went around telling people that HTML5 is a trouble-free alternative to Flash. That would be a pretty big lie. > Luckily, those days are over. They are far from over. People cite YouTube HTML5 player without considering how vlogs are actually recorded, processed and uploaded through Flash. As the viewer, it's a nice luxury to say it can all be done through HTML5, but as a producer of content you'd have a different opinion. We all know about Web Audio API[1] and Capture API[2]. No need to mention how they are X years away. They aren't here today. [1] http://www.w3.org/TR/audioproc/ http://www.w3.org/TR/audioproc/ [2] http://www.w3.org/TR/2010/WD-capture-api-20100401/ http://www.w3.org/TR/2010/WD-capture-api-20100401/
- notatoad 15y ago
  I interpreted the was to mean it was an option. Flash used to be the easiest option. Now with the runtime not being present on apple devices and it's total demise imminent, it's still just as easy to use but it's no longer a viable option.
  - tomkin 15y ago
    If you're an iOS user, HTML5 is a magical place where you can do anything – outside of iOS, it's hit or miss. And if it's hit or miss, it might as well be Flash. Remember that a client's perspective is often neat, cool and fun rather than works on all devices the exact same. Flash will die when HTML5 signs the cheques that it's collective evangelicals cash.
    - posabsolute 15y ago
      Can you expand about what is neat with HTML(5) on ios? personally the only thing I saw was desolation and poor performance. I rarely saw anything neat cool and fun in html5 for ios.. I surely missed something I guess. I think it's a shame we are not going to have flash on android tablets, it's somewhere it could have perform well.

by mvip 15y ago

nextparadigms 15y ago

> You might argue the ability of using Flash as an option. I see the fact that both Apple (and now Google have) actively taken a stance against Flash as something good for the society as a whole. It's a step towards better, and more open standards. If only Apple took the same stance regarding video codecs, too, and embrace WebM. But the truth is they support what is convenient for them at the time. If it also happens to help the society in the long term - great. But it's not their main priority.

mvip 15y ago
Yeah, you're right. Apple isn't only killing Flash because it is good for the society. They're doing it because the user experience would suffer. That isn't the case with video codecs unfortunately, but it would have been great if Apple did embrace WebM, but I don't see that happening in a near future.

tomkin 15y ago

> People who used it because it was easier than HTML5. Having developed both HTML5 and Flash applications, your use of the word was shows a bit of ignorance when it comes to Flash. It is still easier in Flash to do a high-velocity, interactive site that works across multiple browsers. If you think differently, you're not actually doing the work. Armchair critics of Flash just regurgitate what they perceive is truth – HTML5's abilities are on par with Flash. But it isn't true. To be clear, my support is with HTML5, not Flash. But as someone who works with both daily, I'd be pretty biased if I went around telling people that HTML5 is a trouble-free alternative to Flash. That would be a pretty big lie. > Luckily, those days are over. They are far from over. People cite YouTube HTML5 player without considering how vlogs are actually recorded, processed and uploaded through Flash. As the viewer, it's a nice luxury to say it can all be done through HTML5, but as a producer of content you'd have a different opinion. We all know about Web Audio API[1] and Capture API[2]. No need to mention how they are X years away. They aren't here today. [1] http://www.w3.org/TR/audioproc/ http://www.w3.org/TR/audioproc/ [2] http://www.w3.org/TR/2010/WD-capture-api-20100401/ http://www.w3.org/TR/2010/WD-capture-api-20100401/

notatoad 15y ago
I interpreted the was to mean it was an option. Flash used to be the easiest option. Now with the runtime not being present on apple devices and it's total demise imminent, it's still just as easy to use but it's no longer a viable option.
- tomkin 15y ago
  If you're an iOS user, HTML5 is a magical place where you can do anything – outside of iOS, it's hit or miss. And if it's hit or miss, it might as well be Flash. Remember that a client's perspective is often neat, cool and fun rather than works on all devices the exact same. Flash will die when HTML5 signs the cheques that it's collective evangelicals cash.
  - posabsolute 15y ago
    Can you expand about what is neat with HTML(5) on ios? personally the only thing I saw was desolation and poor performance. I rarely saw anything neat cool and fun in html5 for ios.. I surely missed something I guess. I think it's a shame we are not going to have flash on android tablets, it's somewhere it could have perform well.