Comments on: Rumours of the death of Flash have been greatly exaggerated http://www.blixtsystems.com/2008/05/rumours-of-the-death-of-flash-have-been-greatly-exaggerated/ BlixtSystems Flash Actionscript development Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:08:53 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: chrisK http://www.blixtsystems.com/2008/05/rumours-of-the-death-of-flash-have-been-greatly-exaggerated/#comment-20157 chrisK Thu, 02 Apr 2009 14:13:31 +0000 http://www.blixtsystems.com/?p=34#comment-20157 I know, I'm a little late to the party. I recently was recruited to do some freelance work and two of the requirements for the job were the ability to develop Flash projects and be able to develop a little bit of AJAX. I knew nothing of AJAX, and about halfway through some training for it had kind of an "A-Ha!" moment, realizing that I was now learning what I could already do with Flash but seemingly the hard way. Of course I will finish the training, there's no damage ever in gaining more knowledge, but really—what true advantages are there over just developing a project with Flash? It seems like it makes as much sense as knowing how to produce old-fashioned typesetting when I have InDesign ready to roll. Is it really just a matter of developers doing things the "developer way" and creatives using a creative-intuitive authoring environment? I know, I’m a little late to the party. I recently was recruited to do some freelance work and two of the requirements for the job were the ability to develop Flash projects and be able to develop a little bit of AJAX. I knew nothing of AJAX, and about halfway through some training for it had kind of an “A-Ha!” moment, realizing that I was now learning what I could already do with Flash but seemingly the hard way. Of course I will finish the training, there’s no damage ever in gaining more knowledge, but really—what true advantages are there over just developing a project with Flash? It seems like it makes as much sense as knowing how to produce old-fashioned typesetting when I have InDesign ready to roll. Is it really just a matter of developers doing things the “developer way” and creatives using a creative-intuitive authoring environment?

]]> By: Leo http://www.blixtsystems.com/2008/05/rumours-of-the-death-of-flash-have-been-greatly-exaggerated/#comment-12 Leo Fri, 16 May 2008 00:19:38 +0000 http://www.blixtsystems.com/?p=34#comment-12 It's certainly nice to see how Adobe is opening up the SWF format and the SDK. It still seems very hard for them to overcome the proprietary label the Flash platform has, but hopefully things are changing. I wonder if not one of the main reasons that SWF integrates so badly with the browser is the aversion many developers have towards it mainly based on the fact that they dislike anything that is not open source or open standard. I can imagine the folks at Mozilla not wanting to spend too much effort into aiding that integration, and it's mainly the lack of integration that has been a reason not to use Flash for a lot of applications. If Flash had been fully integrated to the browser it would have been suitable also for developing full sites even when they are heavy on information. But even if I do find HTML and CSS to be very flawed in many aspects and find Flash to be superior in many ways I can agree with the sentiment that it would have been a somewhat scary development if the swf format would have ended up in a position where it could have become a replacement for HTML. The foundation of the web should be a totally open format and Flash should know it's place as a plug-in. I do think that comparing HTML to Flash the open standards committee approach to developing technology is not as efficient as the corporation driven way. But it's somewhat like comparing democracy to a dictatorship...the latter might be a more effective type of government but that doesn't make it better. But even if we want a society based on democratic principles doesn't mean that every part of the society has to be run that way. Ok...enough with the political allegories from me :) It’s certainly nice to see how Adobe is opening up the SWF format and the SDK.
It still seems very hard for them to overcome the proprietary label the Flash platform has, but hopefully things are changing.

I wonder if not one of the main reasons that SWF integrates so badly with the browser is the aversion many developers have towards it mainly based on the fact that they dislike anything that is not open source or open standard.
I can imagine the folks at Mozilla not wanting to spend too much effort into aiding that integration, and it’s mainly the lack of integration that has been a reason not to use Flash for a lot of applications. If Flash had been fully integrated to the browser it would have been suitable also for developing full sites even when they are heavy on information.

But even if I do find HTML and CSS to be very flawed in many aspects and find Flash to be superior in many ways I can agree with the sentiment that it would have been a somewhat scary development if the swf format would have ended up in a position where it could have become a replacement for HTML.
The foundation of the web should be a totally open format and Flash should know it’s place as a plug-in.

I do think that comparing HTML to Flash the open standards committee approach to developing technology is not as efficient as the corporation driven way.
But it’s somewhat like comparing democracy to a dictatorship…the latter might be a more effective type of government but that doesn’t make it better.
But even if we want a society based on democratic principles doesn’t mean that every part of the society has to be run that way.
Ok…enough with the political allegories from me :)

]]> By: Dale http://www.blixtsystems.com/2008/05/rumours-of-the-death-of-flash-have-been-greatly-exaggerated/#comment-11 Dale Thu, 15 May 2008 06:22:44 +0000 http://www.blixtsystems.com/?p=34#comment-11 I agree. Flash, as a platform, offers the capabilities to deliver the most robust and complete interactive experiences available on the internet. Countless times a Flash opponent will point at a poorly designed or counter-intuitive interface and claim proof of a faulty toolset - though the same could be said of the thousands upon thousands of cross-browser incompatible websites or even the few websites with animated GIF backgrounds. At least Adobe have managed to knock out the properietary format arguments by offering SWF as an open format and the language as an SDK (a move largely made to attract mobile platform developers). From a guy who had his hands in HTML/CSS/Javascript for a few years Flash is a godsend, and once the format is released there will be no stopping it - I doubt anyone can stop it now. I agree.

Flash, as a platform, offers the capabilities to deliver the most robust and complete interactive experiences available on the internet. Countless times a Flash opponent will point at a poorly designed or counter-intuitive interface and claim proof of a faulty toolset - though the same could be said of the thousands upon thousands of cross-browser incompatible websites or even the few websites with animated GIF backgrounds.

At least Adobe have managed to knock out the properietary format arguments by offering SWF as an open format and the language as an SDK (a move largely made to attract mobile platform developers).

From a guy who had his hands in HTML/CSS/Javascript for a few years Flash is a godsend, and once the format is released there will be no stopping it - I doubt anyone can stop it now.

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