Comments on Bret on Social Games: Flash or Java - Which One Should I Use?

I am a Java developer and prefer Java. As you said...

2010-04-17T16:21:06.926-07:00

I am a Java developer and prefer Java. As you said, the language is powerful and _potential_ graphic performance is better.

However, as I am working on a Java applet, there are a lot of issues that Sun Oracle needs to work out: The unsigned applet restrictions are draconian. Restrictions in general are good, because they keep the user's computer safe. However, Sun/Oracle went a bit too far. For example, inspecting fields is not permitted, which makes using modern libraries like spring/jax-ws impossible without signing the applet. Obviously signing has the problem that a user has to grant extra rights to the applet (unsafe for the user).

There are deployment issues. For example, if the browser type/browser version/Java version is not supported by the applet, Java does not provide nice messaging and guidance. There is a JAXB linkage error that breaks the code with only fixes that require editing files on the client computer.

Sun/Oracle needs to spend more effort into working out the kinks.

So, we're a company that made the decision to use ...

2008-11-11T07:59:00.000-08:00

So, we're a company that made the decision to use Java over Flash, for two reasons: performance for our rendering is actually better in Java (strictly 2D), and ease of development.

While aggregate Flash penetration is around 95%, if you're using a more modern version flash (say 9), I've heard anecdotally that first-time-success rate for your app should be around 80% of users. Perhaps it will be surprising to learn that our metrics for first-time-success rate with Java is ~80% as well.

Granted, it took a lot of engineering effort on the periphery to get us there. Most notably, Puzzle Pirates required the user to click "trust" for applet verification, with effort for our site, we were able run our entire app un-verified, greatly upping first-time success. (there are other 'gotchas' to be worked around as well)

To be fair, I think Adobe is continually improving, and Sun has left Java-in-browser by the wayside, so I can certainly appreciate the hesitation to using it. Just throwing in my 2cents, Java can compete on par (for the time being) if you dig deep enough.