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Adobe Flash
Web browsers interpret HTML, CSS and Javascript. What can be created with these languages is sufficent for most web pages. But there are situations where extra functionality is needed, that HTML, CSS and Javascript does not cover.
Adobe Flash is a technology from Adobe, to extend a web browser its capabilities. The technology consists of a plugin for the web browser called Flash Player, and a software developement kit (SDK) to program and compile content that will be read, interpreted en rendered by Flash Player.
When a web page is visited, the browser downloads that page and starts reading, interpreting and rendering the results. Among the lines that are read, are often also references to external assets, like style sheets and images, which will then also be downloaded from the server in order to become part of the rendering.
Flash data is also an external web page asset which is stored in files with the *.swf extension, that will be downloaded from the server, if a reference to that file exists inside the web page. The Flash data that arrives in the web browser will be passed to the Flash Player plugin, which reads, interprets and renders the data.
Flash files are the compiled result of source code files that are generated by a Flash creation tool or created by a source code editor. The language in which the source code is written is called ActionScript. Through ActionScript the Flash author can choose from a wealth of functionality that the Flash Player supports. This includes, playback of music and movie files, networking, graphics drawing, user interface controls, and much more.
Adobe Flash is a very succesfull attempt to extend web browser capabilities, and is applied in many websites. The Flash Player plugin is available for many browsers, on many platforms, while rendering equal results in all.
De install of the Flash Player plugin nearly always completes flawlessly. With right programming, if there is a reference to Flash data in a webpage, while the Flash Player is not installed, this will be detected, and all that is asked is your permission to install the plugin. The rest of the install completes automatically, and with a fast internet connection this is a mather of a few seconds.