Flash
March 9th, 2010 | Published in Uncategorized | 1 Comment
On A List Apart: Flash and Standards: The Cold War of the Web
Technologies aren’t inherently bad or good. They’re only appropriate or inappropriate for certain circumstances. They’re a means to an end, not solutions within themselves. Each one is powerful in its own right to accomplish a certain goal. The responsibility to use an appropriate technology lies with the one who made the choice. Unfortunately, we’ve misinterpreted irresponsible development as inadequate technology.
There’s also the issue of the culture that grows up around technology. Besides the performance problems Flash has on Mac OS X, I’ve always felt that most Flash developers were using it to show off or to control their audience, both of which I really don’t like. (Not to mention all the stupid advertisements that use Flash to attract attention.) I don’t know what I’d do without Flashblock on Firefox or ClickToFlash on Safari. I haven’t yet seen HTML5 features abused in this way, so if the absence of Flash on the iPhone and iPad can end the abuse of Flash that’s a good thing in my book.
March 9th, 2010 at 5:07 pm (#)
One of the things I think is also a mark against Flash in my book is that it’s proprietary. Unlike JavaScript or HTML or Java or Ruby or XML or YAML or any of the other technologies the web is built on (let alone Apache and Linux), Adobe exerts control over it. It means that Flash will change in ways that are best for Adobe, which will not always coincide with ways that are best for users or developers.