Adobe Flash may be on the way out, but this program can still be very important for you as a developer or programmer. The history of the software is listed below, and you will learn quite a lot about how it came to be, how it could help you find a new software specialty, and how it has changed the Internet. Each step below will help you build your professional resume around both your knowledge of the software and what you can do to help people move on from this software.
Adobe Flash Grew With The Web
Software development changed when Adobe Flash started at about the same time the Internet became a necessary part of managing a business. Yes, people use this program to access free websites every day, but Adobe’s most popular product was growing with the web because every website started to use to create an experience for visitors.
The first company that managed the program was called FutureWave. It was founded by Johnathan Gay and Charlie Jackson after they met in a Macintosh group. They wanted to make a name for themselves in Apple programming, and they came together because Gay had been working on games and graphic editors. Jackson wanted to meet people who could help him get into the Apple programming game, and they hired Michelle Welsh to market their new product.
SmartSketch and Flash
The company actually targeted pen computing first because that was a popular thing in the 90s. Everyone uses a stylus in today’s world, but pen computers were a very big advancement in the 90s. This means that people who have been working with Adobe programs are connected to the history of the stylus, the computer, and the Internet.
SmartSketch was a basic program that was designed to make it easy to use. Plus, the program was a graphics editor that many early graphic designers were using on a Mac. This software became even more popular with animators and artists because it helped them with thinks like their animations and rotoscoping. The company had to add these features right before the first release because they wanted to expand their customer base as much as possible.
How Did Trends Change The Way The Software Developed?
Instead of focusing on the animation market, the company realized that it could target the web. They created FutureSplash by removing the animation components in favor of web editing technology. This made it easier for web designers to start making their pages, and that meant that anyone designing for the web could switch over because FutureSplash was so simple.
Because of this, the user had to adopt the program on their computer. However, users could get the software online. Web designers continued to use it because their customers could download the program with no issues. Only a few months after FutureSplash was released, Netscape added it to their list of extensions. The market was not saturated in 1996, and the company saw everyone downloading their player.
As a result, web designers were using the program to build their websites. Not long after, everyone seemed to be using this player.
More Tech Developments
Microsoft wanted help creating a web player for their browser, and they turned to FutureWave. Macromedia, acquired by Adobe for $3.4 Billion, was trying to get people to adopt Shockwave, and they bought FutureWave so that they could grow their customer base quickly. This is why the program took the Macromedia name in the mid to late 90s.
The ActionScript language was developed for use with this player, and the language allowed developers to build websites. The original version had an option to add buttons, and those buttons could be combined with a web language that allowed developers to do anything they wanted. That language is the backbone of a lot of what people see online today.
The Problems with Flash
Search engines could not read any content that was stuck inside a file that was made with this player. Plus, people had to download the player if they found a new website that used it. People were forced to download the player every day, but these websites were slower. However, programmers did not care because they could make amazing things. HTML and CSS were in their infancy, and the Macromedia player was the easiest option for people who were working on deadlines and trying to create websites quickly.
There was even a subculture built up around this player that included Newgrounds. That is why programmers kept using it. They had all bought into this programming, and they could not afford to make major changes while the web was growing so quickly.
Time to Make Big Changes
The MX version of the program offered full video support, and that made it possible for websites to post any kind of media they wanted. This means that the video player could be used on any website so long as users downloaded the software. The video player was easy to customize, and that meant that every website could do what it wanted when it was ready to post videos.
This program was so powerful that three developers who left PayPal were able to use it to found a little website you know as YouTube. One of their first investors was so interested in the video player that he wanted to invest in any company that used it. Yes, the little video player that was designed out of a Macintosh user group helped get YouTube funded.
In fact, YouTube got so popular so fast that is caused more programmers to think of using the video player because everyone was so interested in YouTube.
What About The iPhone?
When the first Apple phone came out in 2007, it did not have the video layer everyone loved. Plus, they completely left it out of their programming. Steve Jobs even said that it needed to be excluded because he did not like the closed source programming. He figured out how to get around any limitations the video player had, and he did not need it even when releasing the iPad in 2010.
Plus, that meant that Apple was taking over the whole of the tech market. They were giving people personal computing on a level that had never been seen before. also, that meant that people who wanted to stay in the computing industry needed to figure out how to work with Apple. Everyone made their own decisions, but they could not cling to the old video player.
Developers who wanted to be included in what Apple was doing moved away from the video player they had been using for such a long time. They needed to make the change to save their careers as Apple took over the tech market. Then, it was July of 2017 when Adobe announced that it was going to end support for its very first program in 2020. This came after a full decade of declining interest and usage. This meant that the player would be blocked to improve the user experience on just about every browser.
What Does The Old Video Player Tell Current Developers?
However, Adobe Flash is still a part of the backbone of how the Internet came to be. People who are looking for technology careers need to understand how it shaped the way programming is done today. Tech jobs focus on Android or a new iPhone app, but the people who want these jobs need to know how Adobe made it all possible. Plus, some of the elements of that player are still present in the modern-day.
If a programmer knows how Apple shifted away from the old video player, they can explain to clients how a new website can function much better than an old one. Plus, an informed programmer can easily transition someone away from the old video player when needed.