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The web was multi-lingual, it's why script tags have a "type" parameter. I personally think that the death of plugins came about as the result of the iPhone, b

by cbhl 13y ago

The web was multi-lingual, it's why script tags have a "type" parameter. I personally think that the death of plugins came about as the result of the iPhone, because x86 binary plugins won't run on an ARM-based phone.

chipotle_coyote 13y ago
Uh, scripts aren't plugins, right? In theory there could be other scripting languages for use in web browsers, which is what the "type" attribute would have been used to indicate. It's just that nothing else ever really took off. Other than Microsoft's VBScript, the only browsers I can think of that supported other scripting languages were early proof-of-concept attempts like Grail. I think you're a bit confused about browser plugins in general here. They're OS-specific and CPU-specific. I can run Linux, Windows and OS X on a MacBook, but I need OS-specific versions of both the browser of my choice for each one and the browser plugins of my choice for each one. If the iPhone has helped contribute to the decline of plugins, it's because iOS doesn't support them at all, full stop -- if it did, though, they'd have needed to be compiled in iOS-specific versions even if the iPhone used x86 chips.
- cbhl 13y ago
  I was responding to two statements in one comment; I apologize for the confusing non-sequitur. I do agree that plugins are OS and CPU specific, but I think the popularity and explicit lack of support in iOS and Mobile Safari (which, to my understanding, are stripped down ports of OS X and Safari) really caused web developers and their clients to move off of Flash (and other plugins). For a number of years, Adobe shipped a version of Flash for Android, and I'm under the impression that they were always willing to port it to other platforms/devices if paid enough money (since the Linux binaries had an explicit restriction from inclusion in devices; you could only use them with general-purpose PCs). Java ME ran on phones for years, too, although I don't recall anyone shipping a mobile browser with Java SE plugin support. If someone (a client or web developer) wanted their website to work on iPhone, they had to remove the plugins, and I think many people just started designing around that constraint.

by cbhl 13y ago

chipotle_coyote 13y ago

Uh, scripts aren't plugins, right? In theory there could be other scripting languages for use in web browsers, which is what the "type" attribute would have been used to indicate. It's just that nothing else ever really took off. Other than Microsoft's VBScript, the only browsers I can think of that supported other scripting languages were early proof-of-concept attempts like Grail. I think you're a bit confused about browser plugins in general here. They're OS-specific and CPU-specific. I can run Linux, Windows and OS X on a MacBook, but I need OS-specific versions of both the browser of my choice for each one and the browser plugins of my choice for each one. If the iPhone has helped contribute to the decline of plugins, it's because iOS doesn't support them at all, full stop -- if it did, though, they'd have needed to be compiled in iOS-specific versions even if the iPhone used x86 chips.

cbhl 13y ago
I was responding to two statements in one comment; I apologize for the confusing non-sequitur. I do agree that plugins are OS and CPU specific, but I think the popularity and explicit lack of support in iOS and Mobile Safari (which, to my understanding, are stripped down ports of OS X and Safari) really caused web developers and their clients to move off of Flash (and other plugins). For a number of years, Adobe shipped a version of Flash for Android, and I'm under the impression that they were always willing to port it to other platforms/devices if paid enough money (since the Linux binaries had an explicit restriction from inclusion in devices; you could only use them with general-purpose PCs). Java ME ran on phones for years, too, although I don't recall anyone shipping a mobile browser with Java SE plugin support. If someone (a client or web developer) wanted their website to work on iPhone, they had to remove the plugins, and I think many people just started designing around that constraint.