[Silhouette]

I understand why stuff like this had to be made in Flash in 1999, but in 2014, client-side web development is in a much better place.

Client-side web development (meaning HTML/CSS/JS) in 2014 is in a much better place than client-side web development in say 2009 or 2004.

Whether it is in a better place than what could be achieved with the main plug-ins in 2009 or even 2004 is more debatable.

HTML/CSS/JS has won, but I'm not sure that victory had much to do with the technical capabilities of the development platform or the quality of its surrounding ecosystem. If the browser+plug-in model hadn't been such a security disaster and if Apple hadn't forced the issue for iOS devices, things might have been very different today.

In particular, we might by now have evolved a safe, fast, flexible plug-in system to add rich content to web pages and control how everything interacts. Instead, we rely on underpowered HTML5-based alternatives like canvas, SVG, and HTML5 media elements, all controlled with only a single, far from ideal programming language.