Web Competitors 2010

[billyea]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

I have a rant about Flash and I beg that people NOT use it for websites. It breaks the standard method of navigating and it requires closed source, proprietary technology to edit it. Flash is great for streaming videos but for designing your main website should probably be avoided. I saw nothing there that a reasonably competent person couldn't do using Javascript and DOM Manipulation.

Jason, I apologize for appearing to pick on your team's site. It does look nice and the content is top notch. Ignoring the fact that it is in Flash I would definitely say this website is wonderful.

Although i have graduated. I still like to see how things are going.

I'd just like to take a moment to explain my choices:
There's a wonderful backend to the site that you should see someday, which skirts past the expensive Flash editor itself. It's an entire CMS actually. Also the standard navigation methods hold up fine under most modern browsers, again due to the wonderful SWFAddress that implements custom URL and back-button support for Flash.

I do like to consider myself reasonably competent though. I have Javascript, PHP and DOM experience, enough to have done this site in another way (Dojo?) but... why? What is SO wrong about Flash?

I hear a lot about hating Flash, and I even addressed issues that people have about Flash (broken navigation, slow loading, poor layout, difficulty in editing) to the point where many visitors to the site say they had expected a Flash site to be much worse, and were pleasantly surprised. I had faith that I had resolved many of the problems, but I hear people still chanting those same issues as if I hadn't. It almost seems like blind hate. Or perhaps it is a hate for proprietary technology, an opinion I do not subscribe to.

My methodology may frustrate other developers who like standards, but I used Flash because it works, and a solution that works and meets the needs of my team (and ends up winning awards!) is a perfectly fine solution to me. If the solution had required standard HTML, I would've met that need as well.

However, with new emerging platforms like HTML 5 and integrated video, I do hope it will be replaced eventually. Who knows what my team can come up with? I have faith!