When we make a website with some interactivity (not whole flash site). should we always find a way JavaScript way before to use Flash? Should we consider Flash a last resort, if possible?
It is true Flash will not be indexed by Search engine. and it will not run on apple devices.
Will javascript also perform better than flash, in terms of speed?
Edit:
And how to know , the effect which we want to achieve and possible in Flash , can be possible in javascript?
id say no, but then again I might be bias. flash is good for its own certain points and needs. i think that it has received bad press as it has been misused a lot, it is not a replacement to other languages but has been used that way for quite a while. It should be used when needed, rather than an instant fix to make things look "cool" or "modern".
flash is good for application based design, multimedia and complex animations. this admittedly is rather fuzzy, but its hard to define nowadays closer than that. Javascript on the whole is a very powerful tool, and the new HTML <canvas> tags allow a great flexibility on what can be accomplished with JS, CSS and HTML, but requires specific support that isnt guaranteed on all browsers (10% of people still use IE6 supposedly) so its very much a gamble on who your target market is to what you should be doing.
on the whole if you know what you are doing it is possible to do nearly all that flash does in javascript/css/back end technologies, but it is less encapsulated than a flash example, and as far as i know flash is more efficient in its resource allocation and can take advantage of CPU enhancement, where javascript cant as of yet. It all depends on specifically what you are trying to put together and how complex/portable you want the code to be. if you are putting together a 3d shooter, use flash, if you are trying to move a <div> 5 pix to the right, use javascript.
flash in itself will run on "apple devices" except for the Iphone and offshoots of this technology (ipad for example) but will still run in safari etc. on macs. and is constently getting better at being indexed on search browsers, and there are get-arounds for that anyway, so that shouldnt be the reason for stopping you.
have a look at jquery examples like this page to see some of the fun things you can do, and maybe some inspiration.
Flash has it's advantages. I personally love JavaScript and are always surprised what is possible without Flash. But on todays browsers you can do a lot more with Flash and it ill perform a lot faster.
In the bright future, you might be able to do almost everything you can do with Flash using JavaScript and the canvas element. But until the majority of all browsers will support that, there are some things you can only do with Flash.
I don't use flash on any of my projects anymore and I also have a lot of fance stuff on them. But I also have a fallback for non-JS users and you should also have that for non-Flash users. and because a JavaScript application/widget is build using HTML and CSS, such a fallback is much easier to realize than doing it with flash.
I don't say, that you should not use flash at all, but you should make yourself a list of things you want to have on your website and than search for JavaScript libraries or plugins that can do that.
Isn't anyone bored with this question yet? There are tons of answers/non answers on the internet. One could write a book about Flash advantages & disadvantages, actually many books :) I personally don't think there's a rule you can apply to every project that will let you know if you should or shouldn't use Flash. This is a personal choice , based on the type of project you're dealing with , the languages you're comfortable with and the objective you're trying to achieve.
Some clients won't care about not being able to be accessible on Ipads, some others will. You don't tackle a business site the way you would tackle an artist portfolio. Keep your options opened and , more to the point, master as many languages as you can and when you do, I have no doubt you won't bother with this question again.
so:
should we always find a JavaScript way before to use Flash?
why not? if JS can do it with similar quality & performance, why go Flash?
It is true Flash will not be indexed by Search engine.
Google has made a lot of progress in indexing Flash content so it's not entirely true
and it will not run on apple devices.
False. It will run on most apple devices, of course not the Ipad!
Will javascript also perform better than flash, in terms of speed?
that would depend on what you're trying to do
And how to know , the effect which we want to achieve and possible in Flash , can be possible in javascript?
Some level of understanding of both languages would help