Macromedia Flash, or simply Flash,
refers to both the Macromedia Flash Player
and to a multimedia authoring program used to create content for
it. The Flash Player, developed and distributed by Adobe Systems
(formerly by Macromedia), is a client application available in
most web browsers. It features support for vector and raster
graphics, a scripting language called ActionScript and
bidirectional streaming of audio and video.
Strictly speaking, Macromedia Flash is the
integrated development environment (IDE) and Flash Player is the
virtual machine used to run the Flash files, but in colloquial
language these have become mixed: "Flash" can mean either the
authoring environment, the player, or the application files.
Since its introduction in 1996, Flash
technology became a popular alternative to add animation and
interactivity to web pages and several software products,
systems and devices feature Flash content display or creation
capabilities. Flash is commonly used to create animations,
advertisements, design elements on a web page, add video to web
sites and more recently, to develop Rich Internet Applications.
The Flash files, traditionally called
"flash movies", usually have a .swf file extension and may
appear as an element of a web page or to be "played" in the
standalone Flash Player.
