As I recall, as of a few years ago, that was the case, ie web apps could not do some of the things Flash was able to do.
But maybe web technologies have advanced recently so that that’s no longer the case.
Ask HN: Are there things that Flash did that we still can’t do with today’s web?
1–10 of 159 posts
Re: Ask HN: Are there things that Flash did that we still can’t do with today’s web?
#2We can't make users download a third-party plugin to use a web site anymore. I suppose that's possible but I don't miss those pop-ups.
I still have one customer with a Flash-based web site, even though it doesn't work on any modern browser. They actually have some old version of IE and the Flash plugin available for download just to use their site.
Re: Ask HN: Are there things that Flash did that we still can’t do with today’s web?
#3We can't distribute an entire game or animation as a single file which can be downloaded or embedded on a website. Think about things like Newgrounds.
I mean I guess you could do something awful with base64 encoding assets into a giant HTML file, but that sounds horrible.
Flash was also a platform for hosting bandwidth-efficient animation and people have just gone to using video now. That sacrifices incidental, easter egg-type interactivity and drives people to centralised services like YouTube.
Re: Ask HN: Are there things that Flash did that we still can’t do with today’s web?
#4Are there editors like flash that allow you to build flash like animations with just output as css?
Probably…
Re: Ask HN: Are there things that Flash did that we still can’t do with today’s web?
#5We can't make users download a third-party plugin to use a web site anymore. I suppose that's possible but I don't miss those pop-ups. I still have one customer with a Flash-based web site, even though it doesn't work on any modern browser. They actually have some old version of IE and the Flash plugin available for download just to use their site.
[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Are there things that Flash did that we still can’t do with today’s web?
#6Are there editors like flash that allow you to build flash like animations with just output as css? Probably…
With an interface that is as power yet as easy as the flash editor? I'd like to see those things.
Re: Ask HN: Are there things that Flash did that we still can’t do with today’s web?
#7I'd say you can do anything with java-script and a canvas as flash could, but the number of people who could do it in flash was much higher than the number of people who can do it with "modern" tools.
Re: Ask HN: Are there things that Flash did that we still can’t do with today’s web?
#8Are there editors like flash that allow you to build flash like animations with just output as css? Probably…
With an interface that is as power yet as easy as the flash editor? I'd like to see those things.
On Mac there is Hype. The earlier versions were pretty good, but I haven't used the latest. https://tumult.com/hype/
Re: Ask HN: Are there things that Flash did that we still can’t do with today’s web?
#9We can't distribute an entire game or animation as a single file which can be downloaded or embedded on a website. Think about things like Newgrounds. I mean I guess you could do something awful with base64 encoding assets into a giant HTML file, but that sounds horrible. Flash was also a platform for hosting bandwidth-efficient animation and people have just gone to using video now. That sacrifices incidental, easte…
Isn't that what EPUB is for? It could even be embedded in an iframe similar to how you can embed PDF.
Re: Ask HN: Are there things that Flash did that we still can’t do with today’s web?
#10We can't make users download a third-party plugin to use a web site anymore. I suppose that's possible but I don't miss those pop-ups. I still have one customer with a Flash-based web site, even though it doesn't work on any modern browser. They actually have some old version of IE and the Flash plugin available for download just to use their site.
Why don't they setup https://ruffle.rs/ on their website? I've managed to rescue a website using it and seems to work pretty much with all modern browsers.