“Flash Rules”? <= Yeah, it's pretty nice to work with :)

I’m duplicating my comments from the post “Flash Rules” over at QuirkeyBlog here, as I think they are a pretty good summary of my thoughts on Flash and “HTML5” at the present time. Aaron makes some great points, and is really fair with his assessment of the current situation. most of the comments are pretty balanced too, aside from the usual injection of zealotry.

I strongly encourage anyone who feels strongly about these issues to go and comment over at his blog in support of his honest attempt at cross-platform dialog.

Great perspective article. Really enjoy reading a level-headed assessment of the current opinions surrounding Flash.

Flash, as a platform, reaches across a variety of devices and environments. It isn’t just ads, video, or even Web. A lot of articles critical of Flash never mention this. I’ve been working with the platform as my primary focus for over 10 years and have only made a banner ad with Flash once (and that was many years ago). Most of the Flash work I do these days for the Web is to build up modular functionality just not possible any other way. Most of my development projects are now done outside of the browser on desktops and mobile; all using Flash Platform tech.

HTML, on the other hand, is also beginning to seed across devices and environments. Already well beyond the traditional mark-up usage it was intended for. Now that HTML5 (along with CSS3 and JavaScript) is picking up some of the functionality that has been in the Flash realm for years- it can only be a good thing as choice is fundamental to the Web.

Flash developers have no need to worry as the platform has expanded to envelope much more than what it has been known for. HTML developers should be grateful to Flash for pushing the Web forward and encouraging growth in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It’s mutually beneficial :)

I’ll also note that most Flash developers are also quite well-versed in other languages and platforms simply because of the nature and history of Flash. We are no strangers to HTML!

It’s really too bad we don’t see more level-thinking along these lines from the big tech sites who always seem to make it an all-out war between Flash and HTML. It’s not a war. Not even a battle. More like a one-sided quarrel that’s gone on far, far too long now.