Mehmet Alpsoy

I”ve tried to not to follow and become a part of discussions about Apple’s latest act which bans applications that are built with 3rd party tools including Adobe Flash CS5.

Because I had declared my opinions way before the acts of both sides. Most Flash Developers are trying to take actions against Apple like switching back to Windows OS and boycotting any kind of Apple products.

I will not be taking these kind of childish actions as I am really happy with my Apple products (Macbook Pro, iMac, iPod Touch, Magic Mouse, Airport Extreme and more). I will not be switching to that rubbish Windows. If I want to develop Apps for AppStore I will be using XCode.

I will still be in the Flash Platform World and support it forever, I will be bug reporting for improvement, but have to mention that I am building two PHP, MySQL, AJAX, Javascript based non-Flash web sites and applications and this is a result of lack of Flash support on Apple mobile devices.

I will be posting an open letter to Adobe about this issue in a few days.

Until then take a look at these quotes from my previous blog posts about Apple – Adobe war.

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.

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?

And the victory is now Apple’s.

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

I was looking for a router for my wired modem. And I found this.

And here is an Apple Airport Extreme.

Apple should really see how their design is turned into a weird thing

By the way, I’ve decided to thrash my wired modem which is also produced by the same manufacturer of the router and I am going to buy an Apple Airport Express.