Comments on: Can you survive without Flash? http://www.wisdump.com/ignoring-the-hype/survive-without-flash/ Dumping wisdom on design and the web Sat, 01 Oct 2011 03:29:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: dirk http://www.wisdump.com/ignoring-the-hype/survive-without-flash/comment-page-1/#comment-336104 dirk Sat, 06 Feb 2010 22:40:08 +0000 http://www.wisdump.com/?p=2056#comment-336104 1. Could I survive without flash as a consumer? Another question: Is there conten I desperately need but is not acessible without flash? Youtube can be accessed without flash. Some other sites not. Do I need them "desperately"? Not really. Answer: should be possible 2. Could I survive without flash as a web-developer? Another question: do problems exist that can be solved only with the help of flash? Hm. A few can be "hacked" with javascript. There do exist more or less successfull approaches to do 3d with javascript, but the quality of flash is still not achieved. Sound is an issue. Even basic sound playback is a big problem for javascript. A lot of "flash-free" javascript games use flash for sound playback (so they are flash games in the end). Not to talk about sound manipulation on byte level, which can be done easily in flash but is impossible in javascript. A few other things that can be done in flash only: cuepoints in video, alphamasking of video, native image filters, creation of customized and animated filters with pixelbender, etc, etc... Answer: Impossible. 3. Could I survive without flash as web-user? Other question: does the web benefit from the fact that there are "proprietary" formats that compete directly with open standards? HTML does exist for more than 20 years. Now, after this long period, we finally got the canvas tag. If rivalry and competition are the foundation of evolution, it is fair to ask: looking at this incredibly slow evolution speed, would it evolve at all *without* this competition? Answer: No. 1. Could I survive without flash as a consumer?
Another question: Is there conten I desperately need but is not acessible without flash? Youtube can be accessed without flash. Some other sites not. Do I need them “desperately”? Not really.

Answer: should be possible

2. Could I survive without flash as a web-developer?
Another question: do problems exist that can be solved only with the help of flash?

Hm. A few can be “hacked” with javascript. There do exist more or less successfull approaches to do 3d with javascript, but the quality of flash is still not achieved. Sound is an issue. Even basic sound playback is a big problem for javascript. A lot of “flash-free” javascript games use flash for sound playback (so they are flash games in the end). Not to talk about sound manipulation on byte level, which can be done easily in flash but is impossible in javascript.
A few other things that can be done in flash only: cuepoints in video, alphamasking of video, native image filters, creation of customized and animated filters with pixelbender, etc, etc…

Answer: Impossible.

3. Could I survive without flash as web-user?
Other question: does the web benefit from the fact that there are “proprietary” formats that compete directly with open standards?

HTML does exist for more than 20 years. Now, after this long period, we finally got the canvas tag. If rivalry and competition are the foundation of evolution, it is fair to ask: looking at this incredibly slow evolution speed, would it evolve at all *without* this competition?

Answer: No.

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