Comments on: Podcast 39: Mature Flash

By: jefe

jefe — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 04:44:24 +0000

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By: Dennis

Dennis — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 02:42:41 +0000

I believe that Flash should only be used to enhance a web site; it should only be used in special sections or in applications. The interview with Aral was great, but I think Paul should have went into more detail about accessibility features and problems with Flash.

By: Aral Balkan

Aral Balkan — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 12:05:17 +0000

Hi James,
I stand by my comment that you do not have to worry about cross-platform compatibility when working with Flash. I should probably have qualified that by saying “on supported platforms”, however.
If you author a Flash application for Flash Player 7 (FP7), for example, you do not have to worry about whether it will run differently on FP7 on Windows than it does on FP7 for Linux or FP7 for OS X. Furthermore, it would run the same way on IE as it does on FireFox as it does on Opera. Exactly the same. This application will not contain a single line of code that checks for platform and changes behavior accordingly.
A similar claim could be made in the Ajax world if you could author an Ajax application and didn’t have to write a single line of conditional logic based on platform or browser. Unfortunately, this is no where near possible today and many lines of code are spent modifying the behavior of HTML-based applications so that they run the same way across browsers and platforms.
Thus, I stand by the validity of my original claim: When you are authoring a Flash application, you do not have to worry about cross-platform concerns. Of course, if you are outputting for a certain Flash Player version and it does not exist for a given platform, then you cannot run your application on that platform. This is just a fact of life. FP9, however is going to be available on Windows, Linux and Mac and I do back James’ call that there should be simultaneous releases of new versions of Flash on all platforms in the future.

By: James

James — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 15:52:30 +0000

About your guest's claim that creators of Flash apps needn't worry about compatibility issues: I call BS. Macromedia/Adobe has only now, after the release of Flash 9 for Windows, assigned exactly ONE person to do a Linux port. Linux users are now stuck with Flash 7 while an ever-growing number of sites insist on Flash 8, soon to be insisting on Flash 9. (And if you look on one of the other Flash developer's blogs, you'll find a lengthy whine about how much of an imposition it is to write portable code.) Until Adobe/Macromedia does simultaneous releases of new versions of Flash for all platforms, Flash developers will be either worrying about compatibility issues or blowing off some portion of their potential audience, contrary to your guest's claims.

By: Ed

Ed — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 21:52:32 +0000

Now here is an interesting use of Flash: Darfur is Dying: A game that helps educate about about crisis in Darfur.

By: Ed

Ed — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 18:59:57 +0000

Check out Diggnation 51 for some examples of the use of Flash in the new version of Digg (or just wait a few hours for the site to go live!)
They say there will be an API for other to access their data in Flash.
Pretty interesting stuff, and innovative ways of displaying a lot of data at once.

By: Stuart Robertson

Stuart Robertson — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 14:33:58 +0000

I think whether to use Flash or not completely depends on the type of site you’re working on. If it’s the promotional site for a new movie — Flash is a very good choice. If it’s a government agency that helps seniors (for example), giving them the ability to resize text via an accessible website is a good choice.
The way Flash is used can also make a difference. You don’t have to build the entire site in Flash — you could simply create dynamic/interactive areas, while the rest of the site is still very accessible. That has the added benefit of improving SEO.

By: Russell

Russell — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 10:43:54 +0000

I used to work in flash, having a graphic design background, and actually taught flash basics at University (That’s not saying much).
I’ve only recently started to pay attention to web accessability (naughty me) and have found it really worth the time to learn. Thanks Paul and Marcus.
I found the interview interesting but believe if you had have pushed Aral about issues such as Search engine opimization you may very well have gotten some interesting answers.
I’ve recently seen a number of different articles regarding flash SEO site mapping and would have liked to know what Aral thought was the best technique to get high listings.
As far as web stats, Aral did say that he was able to map a path that was taken by the user while they used the site (as a way of replacing the back button). I assume there is a way of collecting this information into a viewable format.
I have to admit I do enjoy the look and feel of a good flash site, but accessable sites seem to be more thought out in their design approach. Some sort of happy medium would be nice.

By: Marc

Marc — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 00:27:39 +0000

I agree that in order for Flash to come into its own the developers really need to tackle the issue of accessibility. I am glad developers are attacking some of the main annoyances that we all have with today's Flash.

By: Ross Johnson

Ross Johnson — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 15:16:28 +0000

I would venture that as flash sites get more accessible, users will slowly learn how to access them. As of right now, I don’t know if they would bother.
Unless there is an audio clue that specificly says “Although this site is flash, we still have an accessible version…” or something of that nature.
Does flash support navigation through audio? (ie: saying “links” to access the links section)
Also, is there any way of accurately tracking flash sites through some sort of WebStat’s?