Is WebAssembly the Return of Java Applets and Flash?

Re:Is WebAssembly the Return of Java Applets and Flash? by reaperducer on Thursday July 26, 2018 @11:43AM (#17618347)

I had a lot of "oh wow" moments at the end of the 90's and beginning of the 00's with Flash.

A lot of users did, too. But it was usually along the lines of "Oh, wow. This page has flash. Well, I guess I'll go get a Coke while the Flash plugin loads into the browser and my computer can't go anything else. If I'm lucky, the whole thing won't crash and take all my work with it by the time I get back."

We romanticize the past.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Is WebAssembly the Return of Java Applets and Flash? by larntz on Thursday July 26, 2018 @12:45PM (#17618821)

You know what was worse than that? Embedded RealPlayer.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Is WebAssembly the Return of Java Applets and Flash? by rhizome on Thursday July 26, 2018 @07:50PM (#17622372)

I get enough "buffering..." spinners these days that RealPlayer jokes are in danger of being re-evaluated.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Is WebAssembly the Return of Java Applets and Flash? by kalleboo on Friday July 27, 2018 @02:57AM (#17624006)

I never had those issues with Flash. Just low framerates and long loading spinners for the bigger animations.

Java applets OTOH had the exact experience you describe. Those were absolutely terrible.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Is WebAssembly the Return of Java Applets and Flash? by Angostura on Thursday July 26, 2018 @12:05PM (#17618504)

Maybe they just wanted to play with splendid stuff like http://wordperhect.e-2.org

[ Parent | on HN ]