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Adobe ceases development on mobile browser Flash, refocuses efforts on HTML5

zdnet.com

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Re: Adobe ceases development on mobile browser Flash, refocuses efforts on HTML5

#71

Post by rsynnott »

cowpewter wrote: post #16

This makes me a little sad. For all that people complain about Flash, and any problems the Flash Player runtime has, it's really a fun environment to code for. I like AS3, I like the Flash API, and I greatly enjoyed writing Flex back when that was most of my job. I don't have nearly as much fun writing HTML/JS as I did writing AS3. I liked the (optional) strict typing. I liked writing for a single target and knowing…

> For all that people complain about Flash, and any problems the Flash Player runtime has, it's really a fun environment to code for. I like AS3, I like the Flash API, and I greatly enjoyed writing Flex back when that was most of my job.

Really? I used to do a lot of AS3 work; it is hands-down the worst development ecosystem I've ever been involved in.

Re: Adobe ceases development on mobile browser Flash, refocuses efforts on HTML5

#72

Post by idspispopd »

thought_alarm wrote: post #31
redthrowaway wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They probably gave it a good shot, but couldn't get it anywhere near lean enough. Flash turns laptops into battery-powered space heaters; on a mobile device it's just a non-starter. Flash is just a dying tech. Were someone to seamlessly roll its functionality into an easy to use package, I'm sure you'd see it die out for games as well, which is the only remaining use-case there isn't a ready replacement for.

I'm sure no one understands the technical challenges better than Adobe's engineers. The problem is that the company never admitted these challenges to their developers and customers (until now). Instead, they continually explained the problem as merely a political fight with Apple. Your website is no good on mobile? Don't blame us, blame Apple's lust for control. At worst, they flat out lied to their developers and c…

Amanita Design, creators of the indy award winning flash-based game "Machinarium", recently released this title to iPad. Machinarium is a basic point and click puzzle adventure. If written in native code this would have no issue running on even the first iPhone (of which there are plenty of similarly detailed games.)

However due to using the Adobe iOS tools(air etc.) The performance is dismal on iPad 2. iPad 1 owners have mostly sought refunds, and left bad reviews - forcing the developer to make the game "iPad 2 only" despite being a battery killing lap heater. (This already puts it in the apple cross-hairs as it's available to download to iPad 1 users.)

Discontinuing flash player is only half of Adobe's problem, the bad code is still being manufactured into processor-heavy apps which sap battery life and demand far-higher specs than what would normally be required if writing in native code, as noted in the example above.

The crux of the problem is that it's not a small amount of additional processing overhead, these basic apps are churning through battery via excessive cpu time.

These tools from Adobe are allow developers to port their flash games to the app store, and instead of increasing their revenue, it's creating problems and damaging their image/fan base.

Re: Adobe ceases development on mobile browser Flash, refocuses efforts on HTML5

#73

Post by rsynnott »

gcp wrote: post #5
Samuel_Michon wrote: post #2

If true, I believe it would be healthy for the mobile web. There are still developers out there who believe that Adobe will come up with a decent mobile Flash experience, even though it has failed to deliver on those promises for the better part of a decade. If Adobe just comes out says "Not gonna happen", we can all move on and invest our time and energy in technologies that actually have a future.

Unfortunately, users are still going to be demanding for a while that their online flash games work.

What percentage of online Flash games (a) work at acceptable speed on a phone and (b) can be sensibly used with a touchscreen? I'd be astonished if it's more than 5% or so.

Re: Adobe ceases development on mobile browser Flash, refocuses efforts on HTML5

#74

Post by rsynnott »

michaelpinto wrote: post #57

The idea of Adobe focusing on using Flash to create native apps is a great idea -- and I'll think they'll do well with it. There's an army of folks who know ActionScript who don't want to learn Objective-C, and there are tons of apps which are created for ad agnecies where development speed matters.

They've had the tools to do this for a couple of years, and it's been uncontroversially acceptable under app store rules for a year. It's barely ever used. I don't see any reason this would change.

Re: Adobe ceases development on mobile browser Flash, refocuses efforts on HTML5

#75

Post by joezydeco »

9999 wrote: post #45
thought_alarm wrote: post #8

Did Adobe ever put a serious effort into mobile Flash development? It seems they were more interested in blaming Apple for the lack of mobile Flash than actually doing the work required to make Flash a remotely viable option for mobile devices. I wonder, what was the catalyst that caused Adobe to admit what everyone else already knew? Perhaps they saw the 5 year anniversary of the iPhone on horizon and figured enough…

Yes, they put some effort into mobile Flash (specifically flash lite) development when they could justify the cost with the revenue they were receiving from handset manufacturers that licensed it. Then the iPhone came out without Flash. Then Steve Jobs slammed Flash (approximately half of which was true) and told Adobe to go back to making tools to help people make shit. And Adobe actually listened to jobs. I feel li…

Having seen the Flash Lite source code back in the days before iPhone, I'd say there wasn't a lot of effort there at all. The code was pretty bad.

Re: Adobe ceases development on mobile browser Flash, refocuses efforts on HTML5

#77

Post by dogfu »

Apple wins! Jobs always wanted developers in a "exclusivity" arrangement. Adobe busted out and supported Windows as Apple floundered. Jobs always wanted to set an example to those who leave the village. Looks like Apple's refusal to allow flash on mobile will teach all the villagers a lesson. Who is number one? Apple is!

Re: Adobe ceases development on mobile browser Flash, refocuses efforts on HTML5

#78

Post by juliano_q »

dylangs1030 wrote: post #50

Disappointing as it may be, it's realistic. I could never see mobile devices being capable of loading and running flash based games or web environments consistently or seamlessly. It just requires too much power the device doesn't have. Even the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 dual core technology aren't up to the task, and I believe that's the closest mobile ever came to supporting flash. But even mini laptops can just barely…

I run flash in a decent way in my Nexus S. It is not the best experience in the world (as usual when dealing with Flash) but it works.

Re: Adobe ceases development on mobile browser Flash, refocuses efforts on HTML5

#80

Post by cowpewter »

rsynnott wrote: post #71
cowpewter wrote: post #16

This makes me a little sad. For all that people complain about Flash, and any problems the Flash Player runtime has, it's really a fun environment to code for. I like AS3, I like the Flash API, and I greatly enjoyed writing Flex back when that was most of my job. I don't have nearly as much fun writing HTML/JS as I did writing AS3. I liked the (optional) strict typing. I liked writing for a single target and knowing…

> For all that people complain about Flash, and any problems the Flash Player runtime has, it's really a fun environment to code for. I like AS3, I like the Flash API, and I greatly enjoyed writing Flex back when that was most of my job. Really? I used to do a lot of AS3 work; it is hands-down the worst development ecosystem I've ever been involved in.

Well to be fair, I do dislike Flash Pro. And Flash Builder is dreadful, but that's because Eclipse is dreadful and it's just Eclipse. All my AS3 work is done in a standard text editor (I prefer TextMate), and compiled from the command line with mxmlc.
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