Javscript - DYING ??!?!

[Anon]

An associate of mine believes that javascript is "dying" .. and we need to move our website more into flash... rather than javascript/DHTML

What do you guys think?

[Anon]

flash is ok... but personally i think javascript will stick around longer in one form or another than flash... flash was a big thing a year or two ago, and it was the thing to use... now im not seeing quite as many sites in flash as before... it depends too on the content.. flash is great for sites with content that doesn't change a lot often.. but for sites that your main thing is content, flash doesn't seem to be such a great choice...

heh, mind u all my opinions are biased as i don't like flash myself... i just don't see the effiecency of it all.. especially when you are working with a database driven website...

my thoughts. 😃

[Anon]

This is some really silly @!#$!!

Look at mozilla and all the new browsers and you will see how good JS Implementations work!

I think JS is cooler than ever.

www.antiflash.net 🙂

[Anon]

Flash is ok but you always have to consider, that Flash is properitary and JS isn't

CU

[daynah]

Personally, I'm more impressed with sites built with javascript than with flash. I guess it's because Javascript has more involved programming than flash. I can't help it, I'm a programmer more than an artist. =)

[nashirak]

Well... in my humble opinion (and I am going to get slammed for this) I like Flash a lot better for a couple of reasons. First, yes Javascript is nice, yes Javascript requires a lot more talent, but I chose flash over it because of the fact that there are now more browsers out there on mutiple platforms that all use different Javascript implementations. Its crazy. You design one thing that works in one browser and have to write another function or something so it will work in another. Secondly, mabye because I am just a newbie Javascripter, but production time seems to be a lot quicker with Flash. I dont spend a whole lot of time debuging. Third, Flash tends to (a least on my computer), load a lot faster and run a lot smoother on my computer. In some what of a rebuttle, Flash can be used for dynamic content if you know what you are doing. Now does this all mean that I use flash exclusively...no. For simple things like image rollovers, or mabye checking some forms, or loading pages according to browsers types.... etc... I still use it, but for general "Flashy" (excuse the pun) content I use flash. But hey... to each his own.

[Anon]

First of all, let me say I'm definitely a proponent of JavaScript/DHTML, because they allow us to turn documents into interactive applications. If they were "dying," we wouldn't be seeing the major vendors bothering to implement the ECMAScript and DOM standards. The problem with Flash is that it doesn't convey INFORMATION very well -- and upcoming technologies such as SVG will be able to do a very good job of allowing designers to convey information in a visually compelling manner.

That being said, I don't see Flash dying off anytime soon, either. It should also be pointed out that there exist a number of technologies for creating Flash movies on the fly, including Macromedia's own Generator as well as various serverside programming libraries for accomplishing this. (I recently attended a talk given by Rasmus Lerdorf where he demonstrated some of PHP's own capabilities in this area. Pretty impressive stuff.)

So, rather than trying to sound a death knell for any given technology, we should instead recognize that there's an ever-increasing number of options for presenting dynamic content and survey the field carefully before choosing the one that's right for a given situation.

[Anon]

JavaScript cannot/will not die. JavaScript is supported natively while Flash isn't... the added effort of Flash support makes it a weak contender.

-Surojit
Bajaar.com - PHP|Interbase development

[Anon]

Check out Flash -> XML interaction for killer dynamic content, flash is a content driven plataform.

[Anon]

Nonsense, check out openswf.org. Flash is as open source as linux. Also I don't need to remind you that Javascript is also propietary, it was adopted as a standard later on but it was born a Netscape only child.

[Anon]

Dude you need to catch up on ActionScripting, the language behind Flash. It will blow your mind how similar it is to JS, plus you don't have to deal with stupid HTML that was designed thinking of the printed page and not the screen.

[Anon]

Wrong my friend, both browsers are including the Flash plug-in now by default, that is what I can native support.

[Anon]

It is a standard, it cannot die, can you imagine Microsoft saying "ok, let's not support JavaScript on IE6" doesn't sound likely does it.

Regardless, if you like open source, javaScript is a good choice because you don't have an alternative but to give away your code.

I personally think JS has come a long way, but it is time for the Web to move into the real of GUIs and away from the printed page an from 'patch the hole in the orignal dumb design of HTML' scirp languages like JS.

The future of the web lies in a new paradigm or Computer-Human interaction and multimedia integration to provide an involving and rewarding end-user experience, be it for content retreival or game playing.

Flash is here, it is open source, it's has vector graphics, sound integration, bitmap manipulation, a scripting language every bit as powerful as JS, cross-platform & cross-browser functionality, native support by the major browsers, the backing of a company that is still in business and a very, very large developer and designer community.

Need we say more?

[Anon]

Also very cool, Java Servlet driven Flash for continuously changing content WITHOUT reloading your page, how is that for a killer app. Away from the webPAGE and into the webCAST era.

[Anon]

Um... excuse me but I've had problems getting Mozilla to playing Flash scripts in Linux.

-S

[Anon]

Maybe you should explain whether ActionScript

a) requires any extra download in order to be used

b) can operate on forms, html objects, etc.

-S

[nashirak]

Um..... Dude... Actionscript is included in Flash, its Flashes own little language... so you download Flash (or is included in your browser) and you have actionscript...
And to answer your question... Flash cant act on HTML forms, but you can create dynamic forms that look the same and in fact look much nicer than HTML.

[nashirak]

Sorry about that... But mozilla is still in Beta... and Flash works fine with my mozilla... besides... a lot of Javascript seems to crash mozilla as well. I think anything crashes mozilla personally 🙂. But the point is, mozilla is still not real stable... so I wouldnt judge the whole Javascript vs. Flash battle on a browser that .9% of the internet world uses... Most people use Internet Explorer then Netscape, and Flash works fine under that. Javascript though... has to be written 2 different ways most of the time so that both these browsers are satisfied, not so with Flash...

[Anon]

Why the hell would I have to download anything in the first place? You dont' have to download anything for JavaScript. That's called "native support".

-S

[nashirak]

Look at my entire message and you will see (as well as reading other postes) that Flash IS A STANDARD.. in Netscape as well as Internet Explorer... which means that you dont have to download a thing if you have either of these browsers. Again Actionscript is included. And as depeupleur said... Javascript used to be non Native as well... it used to only be included with netscape... And as I said above Flash is pretty much Native to the important browsers Internet Explorer and Netscape... (sorry to leave out that very small percentage of people with other browsers)...