I agree with some of this but I get the sense you may not have been around for flash and may be just echo chambering popular commentary without context or first hand experience:
1) The HTML spec at the time flash rose could do nothing of what it could today. Flash, applets delivered - relatively speaking. They didn't 100% hit the one code base that works the same everywhere promise, but came close. Maybe webassembly will lick that problem.
2) HTML interpretation has be ever been consistent between browsers. Respectfully, ie6 was smooth sailing. I'd advise studying life around ie3-4.
3) When Flash fell out of favor thanks to Steve Jobs, Flash Lite ran already, just fine on a lot of phones. It was used on a lot of devices quietly and may very well have been the android of its day. It was just a personal move. Steve Jobs also locked down the iPhone around that time (no app store) at the time.
The "future", html5 was not ready at that time. The web was held back and suffered for a number of years while there wasn't a viable alternative to flash and HTML5/JS still needed to mature and be ready to go.
The dangerous thing about saying html has successfully replaced the past is, we're doomed to repeat the past if we don't understand it due to hubris.
4) Every tech has contributed something valuable. Flash caused me more grief than I ever care to get into.
Flash type browser plugins helped deliver experiences that nothing else could for a very long time, and frankly when the html spec didn't have the foresight, or the capabilities in browsers.
5) Flash saw the value of basing their entire scripting language on actionscript, which is ECMAscript, which is Javascript... more than a decade before anyone thought of using Javascript for building apps.
6) Today's practice of building apps in Javascript in part is inspired outright from what Flash could let a developer do.
I don't disagree with any of your points, these do provide the necessary insight of the two platforms. I was around when flash became a big thing, though never really developed in it deeply.
IE3-4 was probably nightmare to work with :)
> The dangerous thing about saying html has successfully replaced the past is, we're doomed to repeat the past if we don't understand it due to hubris.
I feel we will repeat some of the mistakes thanks to webassembly, but I'm not saying it shouldn't be the direction we are heading to. Luckily thanks to the open nature of developing these specs the process is more balanced between parties than ever.
I think you took it literally (which is surprising for a place like HN). Still, I meant major browsers, all was a typo.
The major browsers in marketshare.. being Safari, Chrome, Firefox and Microsoft are all on board with wasm.
Is there another thing you can find they agreed on to this degree relative to market share?
The wording of your comment makes me wonder if you know a bit more about wasm, particularly with smaller browsers (I am a fan of Opera too), so please feel free to share the smaller browser perspective.
1) The HTML spec at the time flash rose could do nothing of what it could today. Flash, applets delivered - relatively speaking. They didn't 100% hit the one code base that works the same everywhere promise, but came close. Maybe webassembly will lick that problem.
2) HTML interpretation has be ever been consistent between browsers. Respectfully, ie6 was smooth sailing. I'd advise studying life around ie3-4.
3) When Flash fell out of favor thanks to Steve Jobs, Flash Lite ran already, just fine on a lot of phones. It was used on a lot of devices quietly and may very well have been the android of its day. It was just a personal move. Steve Jobs also locked down the iPhone around that time (no app store) at the time.
The "future", html5 was not ready at that time. The web was held back and suffered for a number of years while there wasn't a viable alternative to flash and HTML5/JS still needed to mature and be ready to go.
The dangerous thing about saying html has successfully replaced the past is, we're doomed to repeat the past if we don't understand it due to hubris.
4) Every tech has contributed something valuable. Flash caused me more grief than I ever care to get into.
Flash type browser plugins helped deliver experiences that nothing else could for a very long time, and frankly when the html spec didn't have the foresight, or the capabilities in browsers.
5) Flash saw the value of basing their entire scripting language on actionscript, which is ECMAscript, which is Javascript... more than a decade before anyone thought of using Javascript for building apps.
6) Today's practice of building apps in Javascript in part is inspired outright from what Flash could let a developer do.