Discuss: Flash and Standards: The Cold War of the Web
by Dan Mall
- Editorial Comments
2 Man/Woman. That last paragraph says it all.
“Finally, remember what really matters: People. For everyone’s sake, it’s time we all learned to get along.”
This is brilliant (imho).
posted at 09:47 am on March 9, 2010 by krismarissens
3 WONDERFULLY ARTICULATED
This is the definitive article i’ve read about this topic in the last month. Thank you for a wonderful read.
posted at 11:24 am on March 9, 2010 by Addy
4 Thanks
@wiseguydigital:
we must focus all of our endeavours to ensuring the people using our sites have a seamless experience.
Absolutely! Well said.
@Addy: My pleasure!
posted at 11:35 am on March 9, 2010 by Dan Mall
5 Middle Ground
I agree with the majority of your sentiments. It isn’t the tool itself that failed, but the people who abuse the tool that cause the frustration. This is true of a wide arrange of tools However, I feel like articles like this are just as predictable as the articles that present one side or another. Every so often, a heated debate like this takes place and then a “Can’t we all just get along!” article is written. I feel like that’s what this is. It doesn’t address the specific things that are abused and hurt the user experience.
Abusers of the tool will read this article and feel good about themselves. Haters of the tool will read this article and feel good about themselves. Wash, rinse, repeat.
posted at 11:43 am on March 9, 2010 by Nate Klaiber
6 My thoughts exactly
Create something excellent where the technology is transparent, and allow only the curious to look under the hood to actually see what’s going on.
In this debate, truer words were never spoken. Thanks, Dan.
posted at 11:54 am on March 9, 2010 by jdaihl
7 Diplomatic
Great job, Dan. There’s really nothing to add here – just wanted to virtually high-five you.
posted at 12:05 pm on March 9, 2010 by Justin Carroll
8
The Flash vs HTML5 article I’ve been waiting for. Perfectly expressed. Thank you.
posted at 12:28 pm on March 9, 2010 by documentone
9 Re: Middle Ground
@Nate: I appreciate your thoughts and definitely see your point.
Every so often, a heated debate like this takes place and then a “Can’t we all just get along!” article is written. I feel like that’s what this is. It doesn’t address the specific things that are abused and hurt the user experience.
You’re absolutely right. I certainly don’t intend for this article to be the end-all for this topic. My goal in writing it was to level-set and quell some of the angst in people who choose sides blindly. For the ones who already get it, there should definitely be a more explicit article that addresses finer points of UX, technology, and the like, but I find that it’s a harder sell when the general mindset is so scattered on parts of the issue that don’t really matter.
I’ve actually already started a draft for that next step article, but I’m genuinely hoping someone beats me to the punch :)
posted at 12:41 pm on March 9, 2010 by Dan Mall
10 well said
Nice Dan! I think there is room for all players in the game. HTML5 and CSS3 will give us a whole new set of tools but Flash will always have a place. I believe in hybrid sites and try to follow standards for the content but Flash can manipulate the display and customization in a pretty immersive way. I dont like players in the device game trying to dictate the tech but its all part of the game. It will be interesting to see how flash runs on non-iPhone smart phones and the support for exporting iPhone apps.
posted at 01:11 pm on March 9, 2010 by dane-troup
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1 Wise words indeed
Great article Dan. It is great to see this viewpoint being talked about on ALA. These allegiances to technologies are ridiculous and have been hampering the creative web industry for years. Our work is presented in a rapidly changing environment and ultimately we must focus all of our endeavours to ensuring the people using our sites have a seamless experience.
The “people” are also constantly changing and so are their expectations and we should be looking for the right technology to fit their needs, and not restricting their experiences due to preferential technical decisions.
posted at 09:17 am on March 9, 2010 by wiseguydigital