
Flash, HTML5 and Open Web Standards - _jomo
http://blogs.adobe.com/conversations/2015/11/flash-html5-and-open-web-standards.html
======
jamescun
While it is good to see Adobe listening to customers, but I can't help the
niggling feeling this is closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.

~~~
mmanfrin
The horse bolted, joined a herd, sired offspring, those offspring grew up, the
world stopped riding horses, cars became commonplace, roads and railways went
up. Then Adobe saw the stable door was ajar.

~~~
angersock
Wait, flash is stable now?!

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cft
I think in the normal human language this announcement means that while the
new IDE will support Flash compiling, Flash is being switched into
maintenance/security fixes only mode.

~~~
whatever_dude
The VM/player has been like that for a couple of years. Their change list[1]
has dwindling features, and their roadmap[2] makes it clear there's nothing
coming in the future.

[1] [http://www.adobe.com/devnet/articles/flashplayer-air-
feature...](http://www.adobe.com/devnet/articles/flashplayer-air-feature-
list.html)

[2]
[http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashplatform/whitepapers/roadma...](http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashplatform/whitepapers/roadmap.html)

~~~
zwetan
OK, let's see those "dwindling features" of the last couple years

you have:

Workers for Android, Support Android x86, Support for iOS x64, Workers for
iOS, Support iOS 9, Mac OS X 64bit

and soon (in beta): Windows 64bit, Support for Android TV

It's simple, every quarter since 2011, Adobe release a planed Flash player and
AIR version update.

here the list: [http://www.adobe.com/devnet/articles/flashplayer-air-
feature...](http://www.adobe.com/devnet/articles/flashplayer-air-feature-
list.html)

and they don't even include everything (for ex: AIR v19 added support for iOS
workers)

you can see more details in the release notes: [https://helpx.adobe.com/flash-
player/flash-player-releasenot...](https://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/flash-
player-releasenotes.html)

if you read the v19 release notes [https://helpx.adobe.com/flash-
player/release-note/fp_19_air_...](https://helpx.adobe.com/flash-
player/release-note/fp_19_air_19_release_notes.html)

just scroll down to the part that list "Released Versions" that's 15 runtimes
and 4 SDK.

So "dwindling" you say ? nope, not even close to it, quite the opposite in
fact.

~~~
whatever_dude
It is dwindling. Compare it to previous versions. Things like workers took 3
releases to mature. Previous point releases would add a lot more, not just in
terms of features, but in terms of language features.

It is in maintenance mode, and new features almost seem like a side project
that produces results randomly.

------
puppetmaster3
Adobe lost the trust of it's community when _Adobe_ killed Flash. THE END.

~~~
aikah
Agreed. But the Flash community needs to learn that hard lesson that any
proprietary tech is bad in the long run, Macromedia may have been a different
breed but Adobe just wanted to cash in on Flash and ultimately destroyed it.

And by the way thanks Elop /s Macromedia, Nokia, what a track record...

Ironically projects like Haxe will survive all that Fiasco, unfortunately,
there was never a push for an Opensource flash authoring tool that could have
replaced Adobe's.

------
degenerate
>> Adobe will release an HTML5 video player for desktop browsers

Will this be some kind of Adobe AIR wrapper application to play "packaged"
HTML5 games, similar to how the desktop SWF player opens swf files? I can't
imagine a need for this except for offline content (such as installation intro
screens when you pop in a driver CD, or download a standalone kid's game).

~~~
thefederale
it's a video player. [http://blogs.adobe.com/primetime/2015/11/adobe-
primetimes-co...](http://blogs.adobe.com/primetime/2015/11/adobe-primetimes-
commitment-to-html5/)

~~~
warfangle
Yeah. Looks like an html5 version of ye olde OSMF combined with a delivery
platform.

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bobajeff
"Flash continues to be used in key categories like web gaming and premium
video, where new standards have yet to fully mature."

Can anyone elaborate on this? I can maybe understand premium video but games?
What does the Flash runtime have that isn't mature yet in Web APIs?

~~~
jaequery
Remember games like Farmville? They are all Flash-based. I don't think any of
them have or even have plans to move over to HTML5 yet afaik. Flash made game
development really easy with it's combination of AS and the wysiwyg interface
for tweening and timeline motions. Currently, I don't think theres a
definitive equivalent for HTML5 yet.

~~~
cpeterso
Some of the Facebook game developers may be able to use Unity's WebGL game
tools as an alternative to Flash.

~~~
pjmlp
Except that in 2015, there are still more places where Flash runs than WebGL.

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angvp
Just kill effing flash!

~~~
wyattjoh
Here was me hoping that this was them announcing EOL for Flash all together.

~~~
WorldMaker
I was also hoping that maybe at least they might officially take ownership of
something like Mozilla's Shumway "Flash in HTML5" runtime and helping existing
Flash users migrate away from Flash the plugin.

~~~
bobajeff
Or OpenFL/haxe.

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muglug
Big move, but it's curious that they're still positioning themselves for all-
vector output when, animation-wise, that style looks pretty dated.

~~~
Raphmedia
I don't see cartoons, animes and animated graphs dying anytime soon.

Take a look at some of Adam Phillips work if you want to see some glorious
flash animations.

~~~
muglug
They're great! But they're great in spite of Flash's limitations, not because
Flash is a great tool for animators. Adam Phillips' built-for-Flash examples
are also fairly old.

A bunch of basic tooling present in other animation systems, like virtual
cameras, motion blur & particle effects are missing.

