3 ms·

If it's so easy, build it. A portable runtime isn't that hard. An effective and approachable authoring tool is the real challenge.

jonplackett 2y ago
Yes. The authoring tool was the brilliance of flash. It allowed non-coders to make interactive things really easily. Anyone whose made an Instagram filter or TikTik effect recently - it was like that, though even easier, but allowing you to do actual coding right down to very low level stuff should you desire. and you could get push your creation to any screen in the known universe with essentially zero testing.
- nottorp 2y ago
  Flash is the only thing that needlessly ate my battery worse than javascript though. Pretty sure half the internet surfers had plugins that made flash run only when user activated by the time it started to wane. Personally I only activated it for games i wanted to play, so most of that creativity was lost on me.
  - Marazan 2y ago
    That was just shonky code, nothing to do with flash itself.
    - nottorp 2y ago
      All of it ?!? I remember the time when pc fans hearable meant 95% that i opened a web page with a flash component by mistake...
      - SilasX 2y ago
        Heh, I’ve used that test to guess if someone was running npm.
      - Marazan 2y ago
        The flash runtime was pretty efficient but the authoring tools were so easy to use that anyone could produce "working" abominations filled with the most good awful code that got the result they wanted.
    - tjoff 2y ago
      I guess there is nothing wrong with javascript either? Humanity has proven it can't handle anything else than static pages. Then the developers themselves have to pay for their bloat rather than the users.
  - jonplackett 2y ago
    I’m taking about a bit earlier - ie before mobile phones. Obviously flash was not designed for small screens or small batteries. But it could have been adapted! If Adobe had been in any way competent or caring the flash runtime could have been converted to html5 But Adobe suck
    - nottorp 2y ago
      > before mobile phones. It was the same even before mobile phones. Laptops had batteries too. CPU fans sounded even worse than today when pegged at 100%.
- epoxy_sauce 2y ago
  That program shaped my brain in ways I can't articulate. Took things I learned about computers and animation as an 11yo for granted as basic knowledge.
sitkack 2y ago
Having never used the authoring tool, can you point me towards something to model it after? I think a Bret Victor, "Inventing on Principal" style editor would be perfect, combined with some sort of scratch like Python IDE where each element is defined in terms of its reactive behaviors with other elements on a timeline. I didn't say easy, I said not too difficult. Order of magnitude difference. :) https://youtu.be/PUv66718DII?t=634 https://youtu.be/PUv66718DII?t=634 With some http://lighttable.com/ http://lighttable.com/
- alanmoraes 2y ago
  You can watch some tutorials on Macromedia Flash on YouTube. Here's an example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfHNexSSqfg&ab_channel=JGtutorials https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfHNexSSqfg&ab_channel=JGtut....

jonplackett 2y ago

Yes. The authoring tool was the brilliance of flash. It allowed non-coders to make interactive things really easily. Anyone whose made an Instagram filter or TikTik effect recently - it was like that, though even easier, but allowing you to do actual coding right down to very low level stuff should you desire. and you could get push your creation to any screen in the known universe with essentially zero testing.

nottorp 2y ago
Flash is the only thing that needlessly ate my battery worse than javascript though. Pretty sure half the internet surfers had plugins that made flash run only when user activated by the time it started to wane. Personally I only activated it for games i wanted to play, so most of that creativity was lost on me.
- Marazan 2y ago
  That was just shonky code, nothing to do with flash itself.
  - nottorp 2y ago
    All of it ?!? I remember the time when pc fans hearable meant 95% that i opened a web page with a flash component by mistake...
    - SilasX 2y ago
      Heh, I’ve used that test to guess if someone was running npm.
    - Marazan 2y ago
      The flash runtime was pretty efficient but the authoring tools were so easy to use that anyone could produce "working" abominations filled with the most good awful code that got the result they wanted.
  - tjoff 2y ago
    I guess there is nothing wrong with javascript either? Humanity has proven it can't handle anything else than static pages. Then the developers themselves have to pay for their bloat rather than the users.
- jonplackett 2y ago
  I’m taking about a bit earlier - ie before mobile phones. Obviously flash was not designed for small screens or small batteries. But it could have been adapted! If Adobe had been in any way competent or caring the flash runtime could have been converted to html5 But Adobe suck
  - nottorp 2y ago
    > before mobile phones. It was the same even before mobile phones. Laptops had batteries too. CPU fans sounded even worse than today when pegged at 100%.
epoxy_sauce 2y ago
That program shaped my brain in ways I can't articulate. Took things I learned about computers and animation as an 11yo for granted as basic knowledge.

sitkack 2y ago

Having never used the authoring tool, can you point me towards something to model it after? I think a Bret Victor, "Inventing on Principal" style editor would be perfect, combined with some sort of scratch like Python IDE where each element is defined in terms of its reactive behaviors with other elements on a timeline. I didn't say easy, I said not too difficult. Order of magnitude difference. :) https://youtu.be/PUv66718DII?t=634 https://youtu.be/PUv66718DII?t=634 With some http://lighttable.com/ http://lighttable.com/

alanmoraes 2y ago
You can watch some tutorials on Macromedia Flash on YouTube. Here's an example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfHNexSSqfg&ab_channel=JGtutorials https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfHNexSSqfg&ab_channel=JGtut....