Your opinion on Flash

[LeVon]

I must admit, I've never had any problems with Flash, either viewing it or working with it. After the recent showdown with Apple I keep coming across articles and debates on how "Flash must die" and that HTML5 willl make Flash obsolete.

Now, at the risk of making myself look stupid, I was under the impression that HTML5 is still a markup language. I wasn't aware that it could produce bespoke interactive animations ?
What with InDesign now having the ability to produce Flash I find it a quick method of wowing clients.

I can only give my opinion however and would be very interested to hear other peoples arguements, if I am suckling the teat of the evil Adobe corporation perhaps you could show me the light ? Or maybe you agree with me that Flash still has a place in current web design ?

[socreative]

seems like you didn't read anything more past titles in those articles you mentioned. Yest HTML5 is a markup language. There's Canvas that is said to replace Flash.

I don't see this happening in the near future since HTML5 is not yet adopted properly and will stay like that for quite a while I suppose until all browsers will catchup and implement it properly.

For now Flash generally signigicantly outperforms Canvas. Have a look for yourself here HTML5 vs Flash

I believe Flash will have it's place for a long time still especially with the new hardware 3D API coming out soon, so thing are looking pretty exciting ;)

Introducing the Molehill 3D APIs - ByteArray.org

P.S. Don't listen to Steve Jobs - he's an arrogant tw*t

[Dave L]

Any debate about Flash as a web technology (one, significantly, that is very popular, entirely fit-for-purpose and widely used) has only arisen because Apple - as is their strategy - want an ever greater, ever more tightly-controlled influence over how, where and at what level people who own one of it's devices are able to spend their money.

[JohnRoss]

There are different concepts involved here. One thing is Flash as an app to make animations, another is Flash the video player. These days, all browsers come with Flash by default, and YouTube and such sites use the Flash video player, just because it's convenient and so that the user doesn't have to click an "install now" button. HTML 5 is likely to put an end to that state of affairs, you'll be able to simply embed a video in your page. With regard to animations, HTML 5 should also displace Flash - it's hard to code at the moment and it's true that the results are still not as good, because the APIs haven't been developed yet, but that'll change, and the really big issue is that Flash consumes resources, HTML 5 doesn't, it's native. This is especially important for mobile devices, which are already dwarfing the computer market in importance.

I don't think that means anyone should abandon Flash yet, though, especially if you've already got the skills, but I do think it might be a mistake to, e.g., dedicate a year of your life to doing a Master's or whatever in Flash.

[socreative]

One thing is Flash as an app to make animations, another is Flash the video player.

you clearly have got no idea what Flash is capable of

[JohnRoss]

you clearly have got no idea what Flash is capable of

You clearly can't read. I didn't say that was all Flash was capable of. OP was talking about Flash for "bespoke interactive animations," I was pointing out that Flash is currently much more important than that, for one thing because of its near-monopoly as a video player. I don't know why I'm bothering to answer you, though, because I don't suppose you'll have the good manners to read this properly either.

[georgerogers]

Is this how Macromedia Director died quietly in the night, I don't see how HTML 5 will replace Flash. If jquery was bumped up a notch then perhaps this will take over flash but I don't see that happening for a while.

[richimgd]

I think Flash is an awesome platform and technology. In a nutshell, It’s only since Steve Jobs has come out and basically spread misinformation about it that its created a tidal wave of (mainly uneducated in web) Apple followers to have doubts as to Flash's reason for being on the web. There are obviously pro's and con's with Flash. The way I view it is it shouldn’t be used instead of web standards since web standards are going to bring more benefits than Flash alone. Apple are really pushing HTML5 technologies to the point where they're not ready yet. “Try these HTML5 experiments… only available in Safari 5” Hardly an web standard is it when it only works in 1 browser? At the moment HTML5 Its like a big experiment and buying an iPad on the promise that HTML5 is the future and flash is the past (for instance) is really just a way of taking part in an expensive experiment. Just from my experience I have seen so many people moaning after they have bought an iPad without realising that some websites won’t work and have asked me what they can do about it. It’s unfortunate…

The problem is there is so much that Flash can do in terms of creating a rich experience on the web, which you can’t recreate in any other way, at least not without a huge uphill battle. Just today I was in a client meeting to discuss some ideas and to gain some first-hand knowledge of what they (the client) liked and expected from the website I was going to take part in designing for them. One of the comments was that they didn’t want a flash website. Fair enough, but literally 8 out of 10 of the websites that they really liked and were showing us were all flash websites. “Can you make this without Flash?” “No!” (Well I had to explain it better than that). The fact of the matter is, which I had to explain: You cant really come close to Flash in terms of its slickness and how fluid everything loads and its consistency between different browsers and computers - basically the widest possible audience. You can recreate some of the more simple effects with JavaScript / JQuery, but once your needs start getting more creative and complicated, some of the full on 'experience' websites would need an incredible level of JavaScript / AJAX programming to come close to what flash is capable of – at least in the examples that I was talking about. This then means a much greater amount of money, and with a limited budget you will have to come back to Flash.


As HTML5 matures and improves, Flash isnt just going to stay where it is. Recent innovations of with the Flash Player is bringing some major improvements to the 3D environments it can immerse users into. Exciting stuff. Not to mention that Android / WP7 and a whole host of Tablets and other mobile devices are going to support Flash, its definitely not dead!

[socreative]

flash will be back when Steve Jobs is dead tehehehe