(Flash 8 or Flash CS3):
embedded in a html page:
in a Flash-enabled browser:
- Very easy to master.
- Highly visual and intuitive.
- Compiling and testing done in one click.
- Incredibly small file sizes! Perfect for delivery over the web. Compiled files of all of the mathlets presented on Kaskosz's mathlet page range from 18KB to 50KB, total!
- swf files can run in a browser as well as in a stand-alone Flash Player.
- Almost all browsers are Flash-enabled; that is, contain Flash Player! As of March 2007, Flash Player 8 penetration among web-browsing public was 96.3% in the mature markets (US, Canada, UK, Germany , France, Japan). Flash Player 9 released a few months ago has already reached 83.4% penetration level in mature markets.
- Flash Player remains light-weight, Flash Player 9 is about 1000KB depending on the platform. It downloads and installs automatically in seconds.
- Flash Player performs consistently and realiably on all platforms and all browsers.
- The Flash platform can have server-side components: Flash Media Server 2, Breeze, and others. These are not relevant or needed for creating mathlets but should you ever get interested in developing applications involving the server-side, the authoring environment is the same and everything still runs in the Flash Player.