Live data from Hacker News

“We will stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020”

blogs.adobe.com

421–430 of 508 posts

Re: “We will stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020”

#421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, that last justification is one with which I wholeheartedly disagree. Cross-platform done right is a good thing, and yet here we have Apple explicitly describing how it wants app developers to not use cross-platform technologies and instead rely on Apple-specific interfaces. In other words: "screw developer productivity, if you're not exclusively targeting our platforms, you're doing it wrong".

What's a good cross-platform toolkit that exists today?

libui looks amazing but it's not quite ready yet https://github.com/andlabs/libui

Re: “We will stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020”

#423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I used AS3 and Flex while it occupied a useful niche and at the time it was SO much better than the web platform. BUT, AS3 was not a great language. The VM was pretty slow (that GC! I'm sure you game devs optimized the hell out of it with object pools and all, but still, modern JS VMs could run circles around Flash's), the static typing was extremely limited: you could only type "Function", not the actual arg a…

> the static typing was extremely limited: you could only type "Function", not the actual arg and return value types You can type args and returns. One of the biggest things I relied on when I coded AS3

I meant for higher order functions, callbacks, etc.

e.g, see the signature of Array.map:

map(callback:Function, thisObject:* = null):Array

Re: “We will stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020”

#424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The battery argument was not weak. It was actually one of the strongest arguments. Flash was a battery hog. Disabling flash on a laptop could double your battery life.

That's an outdated statistic. There's way too much javascript and unwanted video and other effects on the web today that your battery is still getting hammered. Turn off javascript today and you'll probably get huge battery savings.

Of course it's outdated. This post was from 2010. Flash was used everywhere in 2010, of course disabling it gave you more battery life.

Re: “We will stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020”

#425
post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you actually end up developing a game like that? Otherwise, Stardew Valley might be something you're interested in.

Stardew Valley is the kind of game where you can go "hrm, I'll play for a couple minutes before work" and then go "hey, where did the sun go?!" Of course, so is Factorio...

I can no longer play Factorio. It is completely impossible for me to play without getting sucked in and wasting hours.

The worst part is that I feel productive while playing it. It's so close to the satisfaction I get from actually building something that it's just too dangerous for me to play these days :)

Re: “We will stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020”

#426
post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The security argument was convincing. The battery argument was weak and I'm sure Jobs knew. Video was a significant chunk of flash's use case, but not the only part, and flash was much more battery efficient than HTML5 at all the other stuff it did. Even today you can't do buttery smooth flash-style animations in javascript without some major hacks (like using webgl). Even simple effects like full-screen fade-in that…

The battery argument was not weak. It was actually one of the strongest arguments. Flash was a battery hog. Disabling flash on a laptop could double your battery life.

Do exactly the same animation with js or even css as you did with flash, and it will use more battery. Disabling flash turned off the animations, so obviously it saved on battery, but the reason for flash being a battery hog was how it was used, not an innate aspect of the technology.

Jobs' proposed alternative to flash, html5, did not solve the battery hogging problem, just made it move over to html5. If anything, it made it worse because you lost the quick fix of disabling flash (or rather click-to-play). That's why even iOS devices have ad blockers now, the mobile web is horrible without them.

Re: “We will stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020”

#427
post #426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The battery argument was not weak. It was actually one of the strongest arguments. Flash was a battery hog. Disabling flash on a laptop could double your battery life.

Do exactly the same animation with js or even css as you did with flash, and it will use more battery. Disabling flash turned off the animations, so obviously it saved on battery, but the reason for flash being a battery hog was how it was used, not an innate aspect of the technology. Jobs' proposed alternative to flash, html5, did not solve the battery hogging problem, just made it move over to html5. If anything, i…

Citation please? This is the first time I've ever heard anyone claim that flash uses less battery than html5 and I'm extremely skeptical.

Re: “We will stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020”

#428
post #266
post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hadn't read this. The security and battery life arguments are the best imho. The last part about the apps make Apple look like they only want to protect their financial interests in a sort of sketchy monopolistic way.

The security argument was convincing. The battery argument was weak and I'm sure Jobs knew. Video was a significant chunk of flash's use case, but not the only part, and flash was much more battery efficient than HTML5 at all the other stuff it did. Even today you can't do buttery smooth flash-style animations in javascript without some major hacks (like using webgl). Even simple effects like full-screen fade-in that…

Flash was efficient on Windows only. On OS X anything flash was sure way to make the fans spin.

Re: “We will stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020”

#429
post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hadn't read this. The security and battery life arguments are the best imho. The last part about the apps make Apple look like they only want to protect their financial interests in a sort of sketchy monopolistic way.

It always made me feel like the open web is implicitly viewed as competition as well, but it's just not as palatable to the public to bash it

I wish that people making this argument would learn how much of the modern web was first brought to public by Apple.

Re: “We will stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020”

#430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And AS3/FLex is still better then JS/and any JS framework

I LOVE VueJS. But you're right- nowhere near as easy as Flex Builder with AS3. I built an app with Flex Builder that got me my first job. The application is still in heavy use every day, and I've never even once had someone report that something went wrong with it.

I think long term stability is more an indication of your competence as a software engineer than flex builder's stability.

not bashing flash/flex though, my first job was making educational flash games. I wish I could be as productive and have as much fun when working in html and js.

Post reply on HN