How can Adobe convince the world that Flash is not dead?

Question

Hi,
Not sure where this message belongs, so please feel free to direct me to a more appropriate forum if one exists.
I am a college professor who uses Flash ActionScript to teach the fundamentals of computer programming to undergraduate communication students. Flash is the ideal platform for demystifying computer programming. The program's animation tools provide a friendly on-ramp to the world of ActionScript. Students love it.
During the past year, the decision to abandon support for the Flash Player has led many people in our industry to conclude that Flash is about to become obsolete. Sadly, many technology and web design columnists have echoed the "Flash is dead" mantra without actually digging beneath the surface.
As people who read this forum are surely aware, the Flash Player is just one of two possible Flash runtimes. Adobe AIR also delivers Flash content, and Adobe has no intention of abandoning AIR.
Adobe is not doing a good job of explaining the situation to the general population. If you look through the comments thread related to the Flash Player on Google Play, you will see that many people misunderstand what is happening. Most people think that Flash, in all of its forms, is nearly dead. I have spoken with skilled web developers and graphic designers who mistakenly believe that Flash is down for the count. Yes, there is an Adobe Roadmap for Flash Runtimes, but most people don't read or understand these sorts of white papers.
Flash is not dead. But if Adobe doesn't do a better job of getting the message out to the general population, I fear that our colleagues, students, and clients will steer away from anything potentially Flash-related.
Does anyone else agree with my claim that Adobe needs better messaging about Flash and AIR? If so, how can we bring this to Adobe's attention? If not, can you point me to good resources and popular press articles that explain why Flash is not dead in terms that make sense to a general audience.
Flash (Player) is dead. Long live Flash (Adobe AIR runtime).
Aaron

Answer 1

Adobe AIR runtime is Flash with extra libraries. The underpinnings are the same. AIR runtime is flash runtime is AIR runtime. The code you're allowed to run is the difference. Open up an .air (it's just a .zip, like an .ipa, etc) and it's a SWF. EXE just wraps it, possibly with a captive runtime.
Enough.
Adobe doesn't need to defend Flash. If you need to defend flash as a viable path to continue teaching your students, that's another thing.
While the multimedia engine makes exciting things happen "easily", learning programming overall in ActionScript is unideal. Major required concepts like the display list have no application in traditional programming fundamentals. If you want the visual training wheels while still launching avid programmers then you should be teaching C#.NET. It doesn't get much easier than drag and drop components with a killer (express edition=free) programming environment. There is no comparison between debuggers, period. If you're teaching animation then by all means continue using ActionScript.
Outside the web there are plenty of viable uses of Flash and AIR from mobile and tablet apps to small kiosks. Flash also stated in their MAX conference they're realizing that JavaScript+Canvas can do some of the things flash is most often used for. That's displaying video and animating advertisments.
Please, STOP saying HTML5. It's nothing at this point. It's not even a standard or even close to being a W3C recommendation across the board. They had to break the syntax up into categories for separate recommendation and amendment processes just because it was taking so long to evolve into a recommendation. The majority of the WOW factor of HTML5 is not just HTML5. It's people who can't identify between HTML5, JavaScript and CSS.
Unless you love killer preset dissolve transitions in powerpoint, without any competition what-so-ever, Flash is going nowhere for a very long time. In fact they just gave us the keys to the GPU, so we're all just getting started again. As far as I'm concerned Adobe did a good job offering the HTML5-JS toolkit for the better of the SEO-friendly and mobile device market. They're sick of people doing everything in Flash just because if it's not on a timeline or click-and-drag they can't be bothered to learn how to do it the right way.