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Flash has its place, for sure but it has many short comings when developing an entire web-based app. As far as I know, the answer to these questions is no for

by n8agrin 17y ago

Flash has its place, for sure but it has many short comings when developing an entire web-based app. As far as I know, the answer to these questions is no for Flash based sites: 1) Can it be indexed by most search engines? 2) Is the text always selectable, & copy and paste-able? 3) Does the structure of the Flash movie imply anything about the information it presents? (e.g. <table> elements imply tabular data.) 4) Is Flash & Flex an open platform which can be developed on for free? Your argument against HTML doesn't point out any weakness in HTML itself. It does point out the lack of a standard and accepted HTML UI library, as well as a simplified, cross-browser compatible development environment for that UI library (the notable exception here may be cappuccino.org and some other, larger dev environments like WebObjects, neither of which I've used extensively).

teej 17y ago
Let's drop the absolutes, shall we? 1) Google can index it. I wasn't aware of other search engines that are relevant. I'm willing to concede that you -should- do extra work to make sure you are search engine friendly, but that doesn't rule Flash out completely. 2) Yes, text is copy/pastable. No, the experience isn't nearly as good. Yes, it's a really big deal that copy/paste sucks for Flash. 3) No, Flash markup isn't semantic because Flash markup isn't public. Then again, how much information does <DIV> imply? 4) Yes. Flex is open source and can be developed for free (http://www.adobe.com/products/flex/ http://www.adobe.com/products/flex/). I do all my Flex development with simply mxmlc and fdb, I don't use Flex Builder at all.
- allenbrunson 17y ago
  the last time i looked at this issue, writing flash applets with mxmlc meant that you can't use flash GUI controls. is that still true?
  - teej 17y ago
    This is true, you don't have direct access to flash GUI controls from vanilla Flex. That being said, I have found it rare that I find a Flash control that hasn't been ported to Flex.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- n8agrin 17y ago
  teej, I appreciate your response and dispelling any absolutes that I may have inadvertently spoken in. However, I don't think I spoke in strict absolutes by saying things like "As far as I know" and "Is the text always selectable & copy and paste-able?". I concede you're right, about #4 and your correction reminded me that as recent as about two years ago I used ActionScript 3 (or was it 2?) with a free compiler, as well as Flex (and I sure as hell didn't pay for any Flex compiler). Anyways, I'm not attacking Flex or Flash, I think both tools solve certain problems well. I was just trying to point out some broad issues with it that you, yourself concede exist. Apologies for that coming across as absolutes. You clearly have far more experience than I in the Flash and Flex world so thanks for your feedback.

by n8agrin 17y ago

teej 17y ago

Let's drop the absolutes, shall we? 1) Google can index it. I wasn't aware of other search engines that are relevant. I'm willing to concede that you -should- do extra work to make sure you are search engine friendly, but that doesn't rule Flash out completely. 2) Yes, text is copy/pastable. No, the experience isn't nearly as good. Yes, it's a really big deal that copy/paste sucks for Flash. 3) No, Flash markup isn't semantic because Flash markup isn't public. Then again, how much information does <DIV> imply? 4) Yes. Flex is open source and can be developed for free (http://www.adobe.com/products/flex/ http://www.adobe.com/products/flex/). I do all my Flex development with simply mxmlc and fdb, I don't use Flex Builder at all.

allenbrunson 17y ago
the last time i looked at this issue, writing flash applets with mxmlc meant that you can't use flash GUI controls. is that still true?
- teej 17y ago
  This is true, you don't have direct access to flash GUI controls from vanilla Flex. That being said, I have found it rare that I find a Flash control that hasn't been ported to Flex.
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
n8agrin 17y ago
teej, I appreciate your response and dispelling any absolutes that I may have inadvertently spoken in. However, I don't think I spoke in strict absolutes by saying things like "As far as I know" and "Is the text always selectable & copy and paste-able?". I concede you're right, about #4 and your correction reminded me that as recent as about two years ago I used ActionScript 3 (or was it 2?) with a free compiler, as well as Flex (and I sure as hell didn't pay for any Flex compiler). Anyways, I'm not attacking Flex or Flash, I think both tools solve certain problems well. I was just trying to point out some broad issues with it that you, yourself concede exist. Apologies for that coming across as absolutes. You clearly have far more experience than I in the Flash and Flex world so thanks for your feedback.