Adobe halting development of Flash Mobile

[Kaisha]

On another note, has anyone heard of Dart? I think it has potential to be the next big thing, especially with Google developing and backing it.

The same could have been said for their WebM & WebP formats, but I've not seen much from it after its initial release a year ago.

[Maguspk]

Flash has MUCH better cross browser support then Javascript.

lol, doesn't get it.

I'm not going to sit here and try to explain this to you. Javascript is the language of the web, EVERY modern browser supports it natively and it is very fast. Flash is the language of Adobe.

There's a reason Adobe fired 800 people and dropped this and is moving toward embracing open standards like Javascript, Adobe is a smart company they realize that Flash has a very small place on the desktop browser but is not suited for as many applications as it used to be. We are in an era where Flash is the best tool for very few situations, in every other case using Flash is not the best tool.

Dart is pretty bad, it has good intentions but it's useless for anything short of a very large javascript application which manages to make use of nearly all of it's standard libraries (over 15000 LOC to define standard functions).

[Khamsin]

lol, doesn't get it.

I'm not going to sit here and try to explain this to you. Javascript is the language of the web, EVERY modern browser supports it natively and it is very fast. Flash is the language of Adobe.

There's a reason Adobe fired 800 people and dropped this and is moving toward embracing open standards like Javascript, Adobe is a smart company they realize that Flash has a very small place on the desktop browser but is not suited for as many applications as it used to be. We are in an era where Flash is the best tool for very few situations, in every other case using Flash is not the best tool.

Dart is pretty bad, it has good intentions but it's useless for anything short of a very large javascript application which manages to make use of nearly all of it's standard libraries (over 15000 LOC to define standard functions).

I think he meant that different browsers can treat certain javascript code snippets differently. e.g. a site may work well with IE, but miss some functionality with Firefox, or vice-versa. I've run into some sites like that, that work in IE but won't load properly in Firefox for some reason. However, with Flash, you know that it'll run exactly the same in one browser as another.

[Shuvo]

Magus: What Khamsin said.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. It is just as simple to steal/decompile a Flash element and it's resources, as it is to steal Javascript. There are even Firefox/Chrome plug-ins for such purposes.

Flash content can be encrypted. Javascript content can only be obfuscated.

[zeal5050]

Flash content can be encrypted. Javascript content can only be obfuscated.

The difference between keeping your money under your mattress, and keeping it in a safe. Only problem is, everyone has the key to the safe.

Also,

"One interesting thing to note however is that BlackBerry have opted to keep Flash Mobile alive on it’s BlackBerry phones. This makes sense because QNX, the RIM-owned company behind BlackBerry’s new OS BBX, seem to have made some heavy investments in making the upcoming OS Flash friendly and are not about to pull the plug on Flash."

I can't imagine a scenario in which this is a good idea. Incoming RIM stock price drop. lol

[hey]

I can't imagine a scenario in which this is a good idea. Incoming RIM stock price drop. lol

You can't imagine why excluding features that it can handle, and are already implemented would be a good idea? Why would they remove the feature just because adobe is no longer updating it?

[zeal5050]

Wouldn't it pose a rather large security risk? Unless RIM is going to be updating it themselves, I don't see how it fits with their "enterprise" mantra. Why invest more capital in a sinking ship?

[Shuvo]

The difference between keeping your money under your mattress, and keeping it in a safe. Only problem is, everyone has the key to the safe.
l

Their are tonnes of ways to encrypt flash content in a secure way. Sure some might be insecure, but definitely not all.

Here's one example:
http://active.tutsplus.com/tutorials...ng-encryption/

Edit: And obviously RIM is including flash content to actually give it +1point against Apple. They are are a failing giant and they very much need to give people a reason to use Blackberries again.

[Maguspk]

I think he meant that different browsers can treat certain javascript code snippets differently. e.g. a site may work well with IE, but miss some functionality with Firefox, or vice-versa. I've run into some sites like that, that work in IE but won't load properly in Firefox for some reason. However, with Flash, you know that it'll run exactly the same in one browser as another.

There are different levels of support depending on the browser but the platform remains unchanged and feature detection is commonplace. Any problems are due to an inexperienced developer which unfortunately is common.

Flash environment being akin to Baby's First Web Product™ doesn't make it good, in fact it makes it worse.

[Shuvo]

Right, but that doesn't make what I said about cross-browser compatibility any less true. It requires a lot more effort then Flash. On an anecdotal note - I've seen multi-million dollar bank software that cant' run properly on all browsers.