undefined | Better HN

0 pointsjason_oster1mo ago0 comments

On the extreme end, a web app can do all of its own rendering in a canvas with WebGL/WebGPU. Some apps do exactly this: Figma, Google Maps, Google Docs. Just to name a few. (edit: Earlier I claimed PDFjs uses canvas, but it does not. I was confusing it with Google Docs [1].)

It's a thing you can do. But it is very bad for extensions and extension developers for the same reasons that Java applets, Flash, and Shockwave were bad for the web. These apps are difficult for end users to customize. It's a real bane to tinkerers. And it's a shame that "view source" has slowly grown completely useless over the decades.

[1]: https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2021/05/Google-Docs-...

0 comments

3 comments · 1 top-level

iainmerrick1mo ago· 2 in thread

I’m glad the era of Flash games existed. I’m glad it’s now possible to do all the same stuff in standard JS.

iamalizard1mo ago

Why are HTML5/JS games so much laggier and buggier than Flash games?

Maybe it's not due to differences in the technologies used. I can imagine it's because less people make these games and spend less time per game to optimize it. Years ago there were thousands of flash games of each genre, a lot of them very well made, likely optimized for speed, pure works of art. Now I see the same 100 HTML5 games on all the sites, maybe reskinned a bit. I don't think we'll ever have in terms of quality as what was available on Kongregate or Armor Games.

I might download an old browser with Flash and some games. Years ago there was a collection of a few TB of Flash games, hope it's still around. Maybe some games that required network will not work, but most didn't.

iainmerrick1mo ago

Why are HTML5/JS games so much laggier and buggier than Flash games?

I’m not sure that’s actually the case.

Steve Jobs argued in his “thoughts on Flash” letter that Flash was too buggy, insecure and resource-hungry for mobile platforms. I worked on Chrome around that time and the Flash plugin was definitely one of the biggest sources of problems.

I think all the stuff you’re complaining about is to do with business models and not really anything to do with the technology. I reckon if Flash were still around we’d probably be in much the same place we are now. People would be complaining about restaurant menus being written in Flash instead of plain old HTML, etc etc.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse