History of Computers - Adobe Flash
Page Created by: Andrew Warden
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform for adding animation, video, images, and interactivity to web pages and has become synonymous with animation on the internet.
Overview
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform, written in a Java-style ActionScript programming language[2], used for adding animation, video, images, and interactivity to web pages; it has even been used to create low-cost, 2-D animated shows including Danny Phantom and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It was among the first pieces of software able to successfully put computer generated animations on the internet and has precipitated into the sharing of videos and audio among other things[3]. Flash was originally created by Jonathan Gay while he was working at FutureWave, which he had founded. It had initially been produced as a pen software called SmartSketch. SmartSketch had limited success due to a shift in the market; however, the developers at FutureWave saw the potential of using SmartSketch to create animation on computers for the then relatively new internet. Gay tried to pitch SmartSketch, renamed FutureSplash Animator before its release, to Adobe and Fractal Designs because he felt that large corporate support would help the launch but was rejected. [4]. Despite this FutureSplash Animator was a huge success and was adopted by MSN and Disney to launch there sites soon after the release of FutureSplash Animator. In December 1996 FutureWave along with its software, FutureSplash Animator, was sold to macromedia and became Macromedia Flash[5]. Micromedia was later sold to Adobe in 2005 and the name of Micromedia Flash was changed to Adobe Flash[6]. Flash now is the the single most widely distributed piece of software on the internet.
Significance
Adobe Flash is significant to the history of computers because it was the first software program capable of producing animation and sharing it via the world-wide web. Flash has allowed for the animation and increased interactivity of the Internet which can be linked to the Internet's huge popularity. Prior to Flash there was no software capable of image sharing over the Internet much less sharing audio and video and can be in that way partially credited with increased regular use of the Internet in our everyday lives.
