A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch
Without any apologies to Shakespeare, I bid farewell to Adobe Flash.
Alas, poor Flash! I knew it, dear readers: a program
of infinite errors, of most excellent fantasy: it hath
crashed my computer a thousand times; and now, how
scorned in my imagination it is! my mind rims at
it. Here hung those updates that I have missed I know
not how oft. Where be your mockers now? your
erratic installs? your songs? your flashes of merriment,
that were wont to set the monitor on a roar? Not one
now, to mock your own smirking? quite chip-fallen?
Now get you to my recycle bin, and tell everyone, let
her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must
come; make her laugh at that.
Last month Adobe retired their multimedia software platform used for production of animations, Rich web applications, desktop applications, mobile apps, mobile games and embedded web browser video players. Flash got its start as SmartSketch, a vector drawing application. This was later morphed into a new program, FutureSplash Animator. This was the software that was used to launch the animated TV series “The Simpsons”.
In 1996, Macromedia purchased FutureSplash and re‑branded it as the Macromedia Flash Player. Over the years, there were several improvements to the software. This led to a period where almost all web sites used Flash in some way. Many were programmed totally in Flash.
Macromedia was acquired by Adobe in 2005. The entire Macromedia product line including Flash, Dreamweaver, Director, Shockwave, Fireworks and Authorware were renamed to Adobe. Many say this is when the Flash Player started its downward trend. In 2010, Steve Jobs banished it from the iPhone for being too insecure. In reality, Flash became a prime target for hackers. Adobe was constantly patching bugs, a process which often created new ones. In 2017, Adobe announced the End Of Life for Flash would be December 2020.
Adobe Flash had a life of fifteen years. In technology years, that is a fairly long time. In “Flash” years, not so much. The Flash first appeared in comic books in 1940. He’s been around in movies, television, games and other media since then. Flash Gordon debuted in 1934. Although he has spent a lot of time lost in outer space, he has also often been resurrected in movies and TV. Not too many people remember Flash Thompson. He was a character in the early years of Spider Man. He also made several appearances in later years.
As a matter of full disclosure, I must admit that I won’t miss Adobe Flash. I haven’t allowed it on any of my machines for about four years. I for one, hope that it never gets a new life
Thanks for reading.