Mehmet Alpsoy

Adobe’s Flash products are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. While Adobe’s Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe. By almost any definition, Flash is a closed system.

No, they are not. You could download FLEX SDK for free and use it with a bunch of non Adobe products like Eclipse, FDT, Flash Develop etc. Also there is Red5, Wowza for Media broadcast which use open standart RTMP protocol and Socket Servers such as ElectroServer, SmartFoxServer etc. for real time user interaction which are built on JAVA, Python and Actionscript.

Adobe has repeatedly said that Apple mobile devices cannot access “the full web” because 75% of video on the web is in Flash. What they don’t say is that almost all this video is also available in a more modern format, H.264, and viewable on iPhones, iPods and iPads. YouTube, with an estimated 40% of the web’s video, shines in an app bundled on all Apple mobile devices, with the iPad offering perhaps the best YouTube discovery and viewing experience ever. Add to this video from Vimeo, Netflix, Facebook, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ESPN, NPR, Time, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, People, National Geographic, and many, many others. iPhone, iPod and iPad users aren’t missing much video.

Web experience is not only based on video, there are many web apps that run on Flash to achieve lots of specified goals. No need to list them all.

Another Adobe claim is that Apple devices cannot play Flash games. This is true. Fortunately, there are over 50,000 games and entertainment titles on the App Store, and many of them are free. There are more games and entertainment titles available for iPhone, iPod and iPad than for any other platform in the world.

And most of those 50,000 games are re-productions of Flash games. But we are talking about mobile web experience not just iPhone, iPad or iPod.  So how many games are there playable on iPhone’s Safari?

Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009. We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash. We have been working with Adobe to fix these problems, but they have persisted for several years now. We don’t want to reduce the reliability and security of our iPhones, iPods and iPads by adding Flash.

Yes, Seteve Jobs is right at this point. Flash Player has had many major security issues and still have some. But most of them are fixed by Adobe and if you are an experienced Flash Platform Developer it is easy to keep your Flash App secure. But Adobe has to admit that leaving some of these security fixes to be done by the developer is not a good idea.

To achieve long battery life when playing video, mobile devices must decode the video in hardware; decoding it in software uses too much power. Many of the chips used in modern mobile devices contain a decoder called H.264 – an industry standard that is used in every Blu-ray DVD player and has been adopted by Apple, Google (YouTube), Vimeo, Netflix and many other companies.
Although Flash has recently added support for H.264, the video on almost all Flash websites currently requires an older generation decoder that is not implemented in mobile chips and must be run in software. The difference is striking: on an iPhone, for example, H.264 videos play for up to 10 hours, while videos decoded in software play for less than 5 hours before the battery is fully drained.

It is obvious that if non H.264 videos do not run on Flash Player which runs on a mobile device, most publishers encode it for the appropriate codec (which is H.264) here to make them available.
Also these old generation encoded videos are still not available on Apple Mobile devices, so this excuse of jobs is not that realistic.

Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers. For example, many Flash websites rely on “rollovers”, which pop up menus or other elements when the mouse arrow hovers over a specific spot. Apple’s revolutionary multi-touch interface doesn’t use a mouse, and there is no concept of a rollover. Most Flash websites will need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices. If developers need to rewrite their Flash websites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript?

If Steve Jobs opens Twitter home page, there is a hover tool tip box almost on every interactive object. So this excuse is also not reasonable. So even a web page based on HTML & Javascript, they have to be rewritten for touch experience

I have been in Flash world since 2000. It was Flash 4 at that time. People (including me) were making some animations and that kind of things while meeting Actionscript, and it seemed pretty cool comparing to that freaky animated gifs. Actionscript was also making things easier. I will not be messing your brain up with a Flash history. But…

Look at the point where Flash has come, and the web technologies as well. Flash is the technology that brought the web where it is today. Many successful web stories depend on Flash Platform. Many awarded web sites works on Flash. And some people hating it. Many others who just browse the web, do not care about what technology is used to build their favorite web sites or games. Lets come to the main point.

There are lots of people hating Flash out there. This post is dedicated to them.

First of all, Flash is a Platform. It’s not just a web plugin anymore. It is not being improved and existing for just internet games, or web sites and other things that all Flash haters think it is. Flash Platform is beyond that. I will not be listing the Flash Platform features and all the things you could manage to build with Flash and integrated services. Flash haters should google the Flash Platform features, because they have to know about the enemy to beat it

During my career, I’ve met many web developers who hated Flash more than Hitler. I have never needed to defense Flash Platform as their passion of opposition against Flash does not concerns me.

I have just asked questions to learn why did they hate Flash that much. And here are what I have learned from their responses.

Many Flash haters find it too cute, all that animations, effects, sounds, media etc etc. They do not want to involve in creativity, they just want to write code lines. But they have to realize that it is not just an animation tool since Flash 4. Besides they have to remember that animated DHTML menus and window expanding or vibrating Javascript methods that they used to use. And they have to admit that Flash made this kind of visuals to happen in a regular and stable way.

Some of them gives a try to Actionscript but never manage to compile a working SWF file, then find Actionscript ridiculous and think it is not a real programming language. But this kind of people does not even know Actionscript is based on ECMA Script which is a real standard.

Some of them hates Flash because they become less valuable programmers since the brilliant history of Flash starts, many companies look out for Flash Developers and give many opportunities to Flash Developers and promote them to higher positions in a short while than other web developers.

Flash Platform evaluates quicker than any other web technology, it has cross platform support and features of Flash do not need to be standardized like CSS and etc. like including browser manufacturers. It just works.

Flash haters hate Flash but claimed that Silverlight to be the next standard and it was a brilliant technology, loved that before it was released, but the result became a real disappointment. Also they forgot that Silverlight was just a plugin which Microsoft released with a hope that it replaces Flash.

Flash haters hate Flash because they do not have detailed information about Flash. They do not know its capabilities. They assume Flash is a toy that people will get bored of it sometime.

This hate list may become longer than Harry Potter series. So it is better to cut it here.

Flash will be around as long as HTML, Javascript, Java, XML and others exist. Nothing will change this, there will not be any other technology that will kill and replace Flash. Adobe will be improving Flash and will never let Flash to be exhausted after making these much investment.

But these Flash haters miss a really big point. They now support HTML5 because they hope that they will be building web applications that they are not capable of without Flash. This means they are willing a technology that will be replacing Flash because it will do what Flash does now. So these people will be building up things which they have been hating for many years. They are eager to make it. They are living to see it happen. So I ask them, why do you hate Flash that much while you are that much willing to build up the same thing? What makes the difference?

There is another similar hate story. Also many Flash haters also hate Apple and Macs. And the reason is the same. There is no reason. They just hate it. Many of them have never used a Mac. But they hate it. Many of them suffer from Windows, but they still love it. People may hate things which they have never experienced. And it is really about being so much narrow minded.

As a Flash Platform Developer, I don’t like the lack of Flash support on iPhone and iPad. But I think Flash CS5 should not include iPhone Application Development support because of some reasons that I have mentioned in a previous post. But I still love Apple and it’s products, I love my Mac, my iPod Touch, Airport etc. and will never stop using them and will never switch to another operating system like life shortening Windows.

Also I will not be blogging about lack of Flash on iPad. It is Apple’s choice. But I don’t think it is the best idea to claim iPad has the best web browsing experience while it has no Flash support as Flash is one of the biggest web standard on web. But this does not make me hate iPad.

Politics of Apple to keep the Appstore’s revenue in its own hands seems reasonable to me. So it is better to wait for a agreement between Apple and Adobe. There will be a point that two companies will meet. So lack of Flash on iPhone and iPad does not make me hate Apple too.

One last word for all those Flash haters. You are being funny while you are being against Flash. Just do your work, work it really well, put something on the table with the web technology you use and people will admire you too. There are many people building cool web applications without Flash and many of them do not waste their time to defame another technology. If some web technology brings your application to the point which you will it to be, than it is the best technology for you to use. Whether it is Flash or not.

Finally, I admit that I have wasted some time for this post. I have not aimed to support Flash or defame another web technology. But after reading a post that swears Flash and tries to explode a well known Flash evangelists blog post, I thought that time has come for a topic like this.

Next : To All Flash Lovers

Ok, this is not a fresh news which you hear from me. Besides I really don’t aim to announce that. I want to write about the iPhone Packager which is almost the only thing that many Flash Platform Developers expect from the new Flash. I will be talking about some concerns as we all are smiling after AdobeMAX 2009, and the positive sides are more than negatives. But…

First of all, it is good to see Actionscript based applications on iPhone, and Flash will be the strongest (media) platform ever. But many Objective-C guys will not be happy with that (as it is very painful to adapt that language if you are a Flash guy) as they were the only people who managed to build applications and make money (yes, money is the main thing that we build applications for). But here is the fact, they are actually right. Because in my opinion Apples’s AppStore will be a kind of junkyard after the public release of Flash CS5 as there are lots of Flash Developers (or people tend to be) out there. There will be a lot of silly games that are decompiled and graphically changed, and uploaded to AppStore, probably not free. This example should seem the ethic part of the story, and may be it is not that suitable, but I think you understand what I mean.

Also we will see more topics on Acrionscript forums than ever about iPhone Applications (come on, we all have seen a topic which says “I have just started to learn Actionscript yesterday and I want to build a Flash game, help me -this means send me the full source code-” once), also people who don’t know Objective-C or Actionscript will try to build applications with Actionscript because the Flash community is bigger than the XCode one, and there are more sources about Flash over the internet.

I think Apple shouldn’t have behaved stubborn about a native Flash Player on iPhone with browser support, as Adobe Engineers are way smarter than they imagine. So everything would stay clean, and there would be a difference between a native iPhone application and plug-in based application. Also the experience that Flash Player would bring to iPhone would keep hands of Apple stronger than ever.

So what now? Apple should really think about what to do to keep AppStore clean. Also the release of Flash CS5 will be the funeral of Objective-C for iPhone and many Objective-C Developers will only build applications for MAC OS X again. This is the awful truth.

One last thing. It is sad to find out that Flash Platform world is concentrated on iPhone Development as Flash Platform means more than that for me as the future of Flash is going to be brighter than ever in a couple of years. Also making money from a silly game will not make a Flash Developer’s career adorable, and money doesn’t last forever.

These concerns may seem meaningless now, and the Flash on iPhone may seem as a victory. But discovery of nuclear science was a victory too, until the cold war. And to be honest I will be developing applications for iPhone with Actionscript after the release of Flash CS5, (’cause I will be developing 5x apps with Actionscript than Objective-C), and leave Objective-C as a memory. Should I uninstall XCode now?

P.S : I live in Istanbul, and I am hearing from many digital agencies and know that people at these agencies are waiting for the release in greed, and they will exhaust the iPhone AppStore to make more money than ever, as most of the iPhone Applications built in Turkey are developed by software companies, and the big slice of share are going to these software companies. God save AppStore!

P.S. 2 : A topic with 8 popular tags from my blog? Nice one…

This was a challenge for my team this week. And here is my solution.

In the following table, “Supported functionality” refers to content running in Flash Player 9 or later.

So you cannot load a AS 3.0 SWF into AS 2.0 SWF. You have a project programmed with Actionscript 2.0 before, but you have to integrate a Actionscript 3.0 programmed module. Here comes the pain.

But, if you look at the table above, you could see that you can load a Actionscript 2.0 SWF into Actionscript 3.0 SWf.

So all you have to do is preparing a new Actionscript 3.0 SWf to load the Actionscript 2.0 SWf into it, and load the new module to the first Actionscript 3.0 SWF (actually if you load the module into Actionscript 2.0 SWF that would work theoretically).

If this lines are complicated a schema is located below for a visual definition.

Hope it helps one day.

[singlepic id=5 w=600 h=385 float=]

Ok, this was the biggest surprise of 2009 about Flash Platform. There will be no more Flex Builder because Adobe decided to name it as Flash Builder. Detailed information and FAQ links are located below from authorized people.

Most Flex Developers like me will be disappointed with the re-branding decision. We are Flex lovers who had spent many years with Flash, and finally had a SDK and a geat tool that saved us from shiny, animated, overdrawn Flash designs. The word FLEX won’t be pronounced as it is today.

In my opinion the name change wasn’t needed (or could be more general like Flash Platform Builder) but this seems another intelligent branding strategy from Adobe as they always managed to do, like inventing the phrases Flash Platform and RIA. Also this action was forced by Flash Developers, who started to use Flex Builder as their main development tool for Actionscript, as I did. After switching to Flex Builder for Actionscript development, I started to hate Flash IDE. I think in future Flash Developers Adobe should release a tool which enables us to leave the Flash IDE (I don’t mean developing on Flex Builder, what I want to say is leaving it forever). Flash Catalyst seems a good example for the action, but I cannot stop thinking about the reaction or with a better explanation adaptation ability of designers. Because I haven’t seen a Flash DEsigner who switched completely to the new Motion Panel of CS4, because they think old Timeline Motion Tween are much easier to use as they are more familiar to it.

It is Adobe’s call, and we will get used to it. Besides the important thing is what we do.

More information:

Upcoming name change of Flex Builder to Flash Builder by Sven Claar

Flash Builder rebrand FAQ by Lee Brimelow

A much needed name change by Lee Brimelow

Emir Ersoy

Here is my latest freelance project which I designed and programmed whole site for a friend of mine Emir Ersoy.

You could get some information about Emir and listen to his beautiful music from his debut solo album Cuban Portrait.

www.emirersoy.com

By the way I will post my previous and other recent projects soon.

Most actionscript developers as me are looking for a better editor especially since the release of Actionscript 3.0. It is a truth that Flash IDE Actions Panel isn’t sufficient for most of us. Lack of autocompletion and auto import, makes my fingers ache. A better auto-completion and suggestion would be nice. So

I decided to try some actionscript editors such as FDT (with eclipse), Flash Develop and ASDT.