I still don't get HTML5. As a Flash replacement it sucks. Ajax also sucks or has limited usefulness since it destroys the back button. Video is the main interest relating to the <video> tag which is all screwed up because of infighting. What good is it?
It is an open standard that Apple has embraced. It is better than Flash.
Every major site has converted to HTML5 already. Flash is not even missed by most people because the block it.
Seriously, WTS is IDC smoking? Or are they just on Ballmer's payroll? There's nothing out there to indicate that Apple won't dominate the phone space just as MS dominates the desktop space.
Nothing except the fact that Android is growing fast, outselling iOS (which has never had even 1/3 of the market) and pulling further ahead.
Add in the corporate sales of Nokia branded Windows phones starting in a few months, and Apple's dominance looks unlikely, at best.
Apple is most likely to continue making great profits from a popular device. It is VERY unlikely to see Windows-like success.
Most likely, Android will continue to dominate the phone space, ceding some ground to Windows/Nokia.
"It should be noted, however that the test was developed by Microsoft specifically for mobile IE9 and the tested iPhone 4 was using Wi-Fi only, while other devices appeared to be using a 3G connection."
This are such a STUPID excuses. How can one develop an app for HTML5 and make it specifically for one browser when HTML5 is an open standard? Isn't WiFi faster than 3G and yet the iPhone was started first in the browser speed test and yet finished last?
Eh?! How on earth can you make a qualitative statement about something you admit you "don't get"?
Sorry that was short for - I don't get what the big deal is with HTML5. There are hardly any new features that people would want to use except the <video> tag which is great, except it is hopelessly screwed by political fighting among the major browser vendors.
For all the praises HTML5 gets around here, there are very few who even know what the differences are between HTML4 and HTML5. Many mistakenly think that HTML5 is the fancy JS/CSS stuff they see around the net that looks kind of like Flash. JS/CSS is great but it is not HTML5. And if you are trying to mimic Flash-like qualities with JS/CSS you are going to be a hardcore coder because there are no tools for developing it.
One thing about HTML5 that could turn out to be a big problem is client storage databases. That, to me, seems like something that is just begging to be hacked or at the very least abused.
True, in spite of claims of magic the fact is that any system that performs computationally-intensive operations will eat up battery life, and HTML5 offers no magic faeries to address that any better than Flash can.
No magic faeries true, but HTML-5 does offer platform makers control over their implementation which Flash does not. It will probably always be possible to write a bad page that wastes resources - but it seemed that Flash positively encouraged it. Open standards do tend to lead to better performance.
I'm waiting for the MS bashing to start, but it really shouldn't. They've made bigger strides in web code than anyone else in the past two years. Of course they had a lot of catching up to do but they have done a great job.
You nailed it, they had a lot of catching up to do. And I will give them tons of credit for that.
But I still feel like they are doing too much chasing the other guys. They are too concerned with out doing iOS, Android etc and not enough choosing an audience and chasing the users. For example, RIM back in the day choose to go after corporate users that needed to be able to go out in the field and stay connected without lugging around a computer and that was a huge gamble that paid off. Because they meet the needs of their chosen audience. Sure some Joe Qs jumped on as well, but they made their name with that core group. As did Apple. But Microsoft feels like they are trying to go after everyone and getting no one. Which is a pity because they have had some good ideas here and there.
Sorry that was short for - I don't get what the big deal is with HTML5. There are hardly any new features that people would want to use except the <video> tag which is great, except it is hopelessly screwed by political fighting among the major browser vendors.
I take what you're saying at face-value, but I also have to wonder if the "I don't get what the big deal is with HTML5" isn't short for "I haven't taken the time to fully examine and understand the ramifications of the HTML5 spec when coupled with advances in CSS, JS and browsers." Much of what you're saying makes you sound like someone who has a superficial understanding of these things but hasn't really delved far enough. If you had, many of your questions would be clarified. The problems with the video tag, for example, aren't nearly as overwhelming as you make it sound and there are ways to accommodate different browsers without the kludges of the past.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mstone
For all the praises HTML5 gets around here, there are very few who even know what the differences are between HTML4 and HTML5. Many mistakenly think that HTML5 is the fancy JS/CSS stuff they see around the net that looks kind of like Flash. JS/CSS is great but it is not HTML5. And if you are trying to mimic Flash-like qualities with JS/CSS you are going to be a hardcore coder because there are no tools for developing it.
The flipside being that many people out there think Flash is the only way to deliver video on the Web, so what's your point? There will always be a majority of people out there clinging to any given technology who have no substantive understanding of it. To me, it seems pointless to dismiss an entire suite of technologies simply because you are bothered by those who seem to misunderstand it. (And, no offense, but I would put you in that category as well.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by mstone
One thing about HTML5 that could turn out to be a big problem is client storage databases. That, to me, seems like something that is just begging to be hacked or at the very least abused.
If security is a concern, then I'm still unclear on why you're disparaging HTML5 in favor of Flash. Browser plug-ins open a whole Pandora's box of security issues. You're not actually suggesting that Flash gives users no concerns for security, are you?
The notion that Adobe encourages bad design as as silly as ignoring the millions of poorly-written HTML pages.
I don't use Flash and I agree that FOSS tends to produce works of higher quality, but consider this:
With Flash you have a highly compact pre-tokenized form of the code, what some would call bytecode. With HTML5/JavaScript, you have miles of XML and raw source that needs to be parsed and interpreted on the fly.
Until JS is available in bytecode format, it will not likely be possible to match the speed of a bytecode based system for equivalent output design with equivalent attention to quality.
Some points I would like to pick up on:
1) You do realise that ActionScript (the language of Flash) is also interpereted on the fly as well, right? Flash doesn't just magically appear, it too is mile after mile of raw source code and XML as well - Javascript and Actionscript are EMCA Script varients and are near identicle and speed is judged by how fast the code can be interprited. Which brings me to point 2;
2) The speed of modern Javascript interpriters is becoming biblical, so much so that well written JS or JQ could easilly outrun Flash, or be just as fast while using less computing resources.
Forget the hype: Flash is not the enemy of battery life. The enemy of battery life is complex rendering. Removing Flash may appear to lengthen battery life but only because it removes complex elements from the page. Replace those Flash elements with truly equivalent HTML5 implementations and be prepared for shorter battery life.
Which of those offers more complexity? Rendering an H.264 video right from the HTML5 video tag or rendering H.264 video that is rendered in Flash from a .plugin in a webpage? You can test this yourself by toggling between for the same video at: http://www.youtube.com/html5.
Yes but it is still on the Fly, and the AVM (ActionScript Virtual Machine) is not exactly "light on resources". As for Flash being the "Enemy of Battery Life" - it is, because of how hard it has to work the hardware to get the desired results. If its a headless operation (IE: No GUI) then it can be comparable to HTML5 and Javascript, but the second you add a GUI, all those rendered bitmaps and vectors can really start to suck power dry.
Of course I can't find XML in that SWF file! As with Javascript, XML files are an External resource to ActionScript. Where Javascript uses the XMLHttpRequest() method and then parses the XML, ActionScript uses the URLRequest() Method instead, but still requires some form of parser object for the XML. Both of them technically use AJAX, though with Actionscript it would be AAAX
I've been developing in Flash since MX (v6, circa 2004) and I've never been happy with its CPU usage. I now use it for Adobe AIR only, no web plugins.
To pick-up on what solipsism has just now stated, content in Flash is first pre-calculated within the AVM, and then the output from the AVM is rendered by the plugin within the browser engine. Using HTML 5 and JS, everything is calculated and rendered within the browser engine on the fly. Lets also not forget the benefits of HTML5+JS over Flash:
1. Flash cannot do full 3D out of the box, and no full 3D library yet exists, HTML5+JS CAN do full 3D thanks to the WebGL engine (part of WebKit I believe).
2. You cannot create threaded applications in ActionScript, it does it automatically and the number of threads it creates is overkill. With Javascript and HTML5, you now have the "worker" method to create threaded web applications! You can even create "push" web applications in HTML5
3. Its free, to put it simply. Say you have an office of ten computers and you want the ability to create content on all machines - HTML5 and JS can be done with as little as a plain text editor, which are included with any and all desktop operating systems, 10 licenses of Flash Professional costs $6,930.00!
1. Flash cannot do full 3D out of the box, and no full 3D library yet exists, HTML5+JS CAN do full 3D thanks to the WebGL engine (part of WebKit I believe).
WebGL is in Safari 5.1 in Lion. I am not sure if it's enabled by default as it's an option in the Develop menu.
Also, as an aside, Safari in Lion and iOS 5.0 also now have HW acceleration for Canvas, something only MS had the pleasure of having. MacRulez and ilk used to show that "HTML5" is just as resource hungry as Flash for doing an animation by showing Canvas element in use. Of course, they ignored that Canvas is just one element of HTML5 which is where their argument falls apart, but the move by WebKit and IE to include HW acceleration for Canvas is just another area where Flash loses what little hold they have remaining.
PS: I find Silverlight much more stable than Flash. In fact it's the only plugin I have installed on Safari for the use of Netflix. If not for both the iPhone OS on one end and MS Silverlight on the other just imagine how bad Flash would be today had these technologies hadn't put a fire under Adobe's lazy arse.
WebGL is in Safari 5.1 in Lion. I am not sure if it's enabled by default as it's an option in the Develop menu.
Also, as an aside, Safari in Lion and iOS 5.0 also now have HW acceleration for Canvas, something only MS had the pleasure of having. MacRulez and ilk used to show that "HTML5" is just as resource hungry as Flash for doing an animation by showing Canvas element in use. Of course, they ignored that Canvas is just one element of HTML5 which is where their argument falls apart, but the move by WebKit and IE to include HW acceleration for Canvas is just another area where Flash loses what little hold they have remaining.
PS: I find Silverlight much more stable than Flash. In fact it's the only plugin I have installed on Safari for the use of Netflix. If not for both the iPhone OS on one end and MS Silverlight on the other just imagine how bad Flash would be today had these technologies hadn't put a fire under Adobe's lazy arse.
WebGL is in SL right now I believe, the Quake II HTML 5 clone requires WebGL and runs fine in Safari.
HTML5 more resource intensive my backside.
Three tabs, two has static sites, one tab playing a Flash YouTube video. The Flash plugin has 15 threads and settled at around 22 to 23% CPU usage on a Quad Core i7 Thunderbolt MBP, whilst Safari itself has 23 Threads and 6% CPU Usage. Flash alone is also using nearly 60mb of RAM. This is the new, hardware accelerated Flash Plugin.
Same conditions, only now its the same youtube video in HTML5. Safari alone is using the same CPU Power as Flash did on its own, has only increased its thread count by 2 and its RAM usage by 6MB. HTML5 is not yet hardware accelerated in SL. Although the CPU usage settles to the same level as the Flash plugin, its still less than Flash as its not "Flash+Safari" and has far less threads, the CPU wont have to work as hard and you save power and therefore battery life. Once HTML5 becomes hardware accelerated, it'll blow Flash out of the water.
Those who read my post will note that I specifically referred to the complexity of vector manipulation and interactivity.
If you can find a complex animation manipulating hundreds of vector objects in HTML5 that takes no more CPU power than a static page, you will have found your magic faery.
Until then.....
First Point, H.264 - Yes its a codec wonderful for working it out. The point he was trying to make was that h264 video would be rendered by the browser, not by flash and the output from flash then rendered by the browser.
Interactivity? How many times am I going to have to point out that Quake II video? A full FPS game in 3D with network multiplayer and up-to 60fps in HTML5 and Javascript, nothing else, just HTML5 and Javascript. Is that Interactive? Dear sweet christ yes! Is it more than what flash can do Interactively? Yes, definitly.
As for CPU usuage, I shall point you back to my previous post where a non hardware accelerated HTML5 youtube page gets slightly better performance over a hardware accellerated Flash page. Once HTML5 is hardware accellerated in desktop browsers, bam, Flash will be left in its dust. Lets also not forget how poorly Flash runs on mobile devices (IE: Android) because of how much CPU Power it uses.
So until you can come up with a decent counter argument which isn't just personal opinion in disguise, HTML5+JS has come up being the better and more capable technology. If someone has seen a full 3D, FPS shooter with multiplayer network capabilities then please, be my guest and show it to me.
Comments
I still don't get HTML5. As a Flash replacement it sucks. Ajax also sucks or has limited usefulness since it destroys the back button. Video is the main interest relating to the <video> tag which is all screwed up because of infighting. What good is it?
It is an open standard that Apple has embraced. It is better than Flash.
Every major site has converted to HTML5 already. Flash is not even missed by most people because the block it.
Seriously, WTS is IDC smoking? Or are they just on Ballmer's payroll? There's nothing out there to indicate that Apple won't dominate the phone space just as MS dominates the desktop space.
Nothing except the fact that Android is growing fast, outselling iOS (which has never had even 1/3 of the market) and pulling further ahead.
Add in the corporate sales of Nokia branded Windows phones starting in a few months, and Apple's dominance looks unlikely, at best.
Apple is most likely to continue making great profits from a popular device. It is VERY unlikely to see Windows-like success.
Most likely, Android will continue to dominate the phone space, ceding some ground to Windows/Nokia.
This are such a STUPID excuses. How can one develop an app for HTML5 and make it specifically for one browser when HTML5 is an open standard? Isn't WiFi faster than 3G and yet the iPhone was started first in the browser speed test and yet finished last?
Accept defeat and stop crying all over the place.
Eh?! How on earth can you make a qualitative statement about something you admit you "don't get"?
Sorry that was short for - I don't get what the big deal is with HTML5. There are hardly any new features that people would want to use except the <video> tag which is great, except it is hopelessly screwed by political fighting among the major browser vendors.
For all the praises HTML5 gets around here, there are very few who even know what the differences are between HTML4 and HTML5. Many mistakenly think that HTML5 is the fancy JS/CSS stuff they see around the net that looks kind of like Flash. JS/CSS is great but it is not HTML5. And if you are trying to mimic Flash-like qualities with JS/CSS you are going to be a hardcore coder because there are no tools for developing it.
One thing about HTML5 that could turn out to be a big problem is client storage databases. That, to me, seems like something that is just begging to be hacked or at the very least abused.
True, in spite of claims of magic the fact is that any system that performs computationally-intensive operations will eat up battery life, and HTML5 offers no magic faeries to address that any better than Flash can.
No magic faeries true, but HTML-5 does offer platform makers control over their implementation which Flash does not. It will probably always be possible to write a bad page that wastes resources - but it seemed that Flash positively encouraged it. Open standards do tend to lead to better performance.
I'm waiting for the MS bashing to start, but it really shouldn't. They've made bigger strides in web code than anyone else in the past two years. Of course they had a lot of catching up to do but they have done a great job.
You nailed it, they had a lot of catching up to do. And I will give them tons of credit for that.
But I still feel like they are doing too much chasing the other guys. They are too concerned with out doing iOS, Android etc and not enough choosing an audience and chasing the users. For example, RIM back in the day choose to go after corporate users that needed to be able to go out in the field and stay connected without lugging around a computer and that was a huge gamble that paid off. Because they meet the needs of their chosen audience. Sure some Joe Qs jumped on as well, but they made their name with that core group. As did Apple. But Microsoft feels like they are trying to go after everyone and getting no one. Which is a pity because they have had some good ideas here and there.
Sorry that was short for - I don't get what the big deal is with HTML5. There are hardly any new features that people would want to use except the <video> tag which is great, except it is hopelessly screwed by political fighting among the major browser vendors.
I take what you're saying at face-value, but I also have to wonder if the "I don't get what the big deal is with HTML5" isn't short for "I haven't taken the time to fully examine and understand the ramifications of the HTML5 spec when coupled with advances in CSS, JS and browsers." Much of what you're saying makes you sound like someone who has a superficial understanding of these things but hasn't really delved far enough. If you had, many of your questions would be clarified. The problems with the video tag, for example, aren't nearly as overwhelming as you make it sound and there are ways to accommodate different browsers without the kludges of the past.
For all the praises HTML5 gets around here, there are very few who even know what the differences are between HTML4 and HTML5. Many mistakenly think that HTML5 is the fancy JS/CSS stuff they see around the net that looks kind of like Flash. JS/CSS is great but it is not HTML5. And if you are trying to mimic Flash-like qualities with JS/CSS you are going to be a hardcore coder because there are no tools for developing it.
The flipside being that many people out there think Flash is the only way to deliver video on the Web, so what's your point? There will always be a majority of people out there clinging to any given technology who have no substantive understanding of it. To me, it seems pointless to dismiss an entire suite of technologies simply because you are bothered by those who seem to misunderstand it. (And, no offense, but I would put you in that category as well.)
One thing about HTML5 that could turn out to be a big problem is client storage databases. That, to me, seems like something that is just begging to be hacked or at the very least abused.
If security is a concern, then I'm still unclear on why you're disparaging HTML5 in favor of Flash. Browser plug-ins open a whole Pandora's box of security issues. You're not actually suggesting that Flash gives users no concerns for security, are you?
Whatever... do I have to use IE to understand anything? I don't think so.
http://www.ubergizmo.com/2010/04/qua...runs-on-html5/
HTML5 and Javascript. Flash can only dream of doing things like that.
The notion that Adobe encourages bad design as as silly as ignoring the millions of poorly-written HTML pages.
I don't use Flash and I agree that FOSS tends to produce works of higher quality, but consider this:
With Flash you have a highly compact pre-tokenized form of the code, what some would call bytecode. With HTML5/JavaScript, you have miles of XML and raw source that needs to be parsed and interpreted on the fly.
Until JS is available in bytecode format, it will not likely be possible to match the speed of a bytecode based system for equivalent output design with equivalent attention to quality.
Some points I would like to pick up on:
1) You do realise that ActionScript (the language of Flash) is also interpereted on the fly as well, right? Flash doesn't just magically appear, it too is mile after mile of raw source code and XML as well - Javascript and Actionscript are EMCA Script varients and are near identicle and speed is judged by how fast the code can be interprited. Which brings me to point 2;
2) The speed of modern Javascript interpriters is becoming biblical, so much so that well written JS or JQ could easilly outrun Flash, or be just as fast while using less computing resources.
TheNextWeb has shown a newer Mango build with 41 FPS beating iOS 5 beta with 31 FPS.
http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2011...ot-even-close/
Personally, I don't think that the different in FPS is a big deal, but at least get the facts right.
Forget the hype: Flash is not the enemy of battery life. The enemy of battery life is complex rendering. Removing Flash may appear to lengthen battery life but only because it removes complex elements from the page. Replace those Flash elements with truly equivalent HTML5 implementations and be prepared for shorter battery life.
Which of those offers more complexity? Rendering an H.264 video right from the HTML5 video tag or rendering H.264 video that is rendered in Flash from a .plugin in a webpage? You can test this yourself by toggling between for the same video at: http://www.youtube.com/html5.
too long to quote!
Yes but it is still on the Fly, and the AVM (ActionScript Virtual Machine) is not exactly "light on resources". As for Flash being the "Enemy of Battery Life" - it is, because of how hard it has to work the hardware to get the desired results. If its a headless operation (IE: No GUI) then it can be comparable to HTML5 and Javascript, but the second you add a GUI, all those rendered bitmaps and vectors can really start to suck power dry.
Of course I can't find XML in that SWF file! As with Javascript, XML files are an External resource to ActionScript. Where Javascript uses the XMLHttpRequest() method and then parses the XML, ActionScript uses the URLRequest() Method instead, but still requires some form of parser object for the XML. Both of them technically use AJAX, though with Actionscript it would be AAAX
I've been developing in Flash since MX (v6, circa 2004) and I've never been happy with its CPU usage. I now use it for Adobe AIR only, no web plugins.
To pick-up on what solipsism has just now stated, content in Flash is first pre-calculated within the AVM, and then the output from the AVM is rendered by the plugin within the browser engine. Using HTML 5 and JS, everything is calculated and rendered within the browser engine on the fly. Lets also not forget the benefits of HTML5+JS over Flash:
1. Flash cannot do full 3D out of the box, and no full 3D library yet exists, HTML5+JS CAN do full 3D thanks to the WebGL engine (part of WebKit I believe).
2. You cannot create threaded applications in ActionScript, it does it automatically and the number of threads it creates is overkill. With Javascript and HTML5, you now have the "worker" method to create threaded web applications! You can even create "push" web applications in HTML5
3. Its free, to put it simply. Say you have an office of ten computers and you want the ability to create content on all machines - HTML5 and JS can be done with as little as a plain text editor, which are included with any and all desktop operating systems, 10 licenses of Flash Professional costs $6,930.00!
1. Flash cannot do full 3D out of the box, and no full 3D library yet exists, HTML5+JS CAN do full 3D thanks to the WebGL engine (part of WebKit I believe).
WebGL is in Safari 5.1 in Lion. I am not sure if it's enabled by default as it's an option in the Develop menu.
Also, as an aside, Safari in Lion and iOS 5.0 also now have HW acceleration for Canvas, something only MS had the pleasure of having. MacRulez and ilk used to show that "HTML5" is just as resource hungry as Flash for doing an animation by showing Canvas element in use. Of course, they ignored that Canvas is just one element of HTML5 which is where their argument falls apart, but the move by WebKit and IE to include HW acceleration for Canvas is just another area where Flash loses what little hold they have remaining.
PS: I find Silverlight much more stable than Flash. In fact it's the only plugin I have installed on Safari for the use of Netflix. If not for both the iPhone OS on one end and MS Silverlight on the other just imagine how bad Flash would be today had these technologies hadn't put a fire under Adobe's lazy arse.
WebGL is in Safari 5.1 in Lion. I am not sure if it's enabled by default as it's an option in the Develop menu.
Also, as an aside, Safari in Lion and iOS 5.0 also now have HW acceleration for Canvas, something only MS had the pleasure of having. MacRulez and ilk used to show that "HTML5" is just as resource hungry as Flash for doing an animation by showing Canvas element in use. Of course, they ignored that Canvas is just one element of HTML5 which is where their argument falls apart, but the move by WebKit and IE to include HW acceleration for Canvas is just another area where Flash loses what little hold they have remaining.
PS: I find Silverlight much more stable than Flash. In fact it's the only plugin I have installed on Safari for the use of Netflix. If not for both the iPhone OS on one end and MS Silverlight on the other just imagine how bad Flash would be today had these technologies hadn't put a fire under Adobe's lazy arse.
WebGL is in SL right now I believe, the Quake II HTML 5 clone requires WebGL and runs fine in Safari.
HTML5 more resource intensive my backside.
Three tabs, two has static sites, one tab playing a Flash YouTube video. The Flash plugin has 15 threads and settled at around 22 to 23% CPU usage on a Quad Core i7 Thunderbolt MBP, whilst Safari itself has 23 Threads and 6% CPU Usage. Flash alone is also using nearly 60mb of RAM. This is the new, hardware accelerated Flash Plugin.
Same conditions, only now its the same youtube video in HTML5. Safari alone is using the same CPU Power as Flash did on its own, has only increased its thread count by 2 and its RAM usage by 6MB. HTML5 is not yet hardware accelerated in SL. Although the CPU usage settles to the same level as the Flash plugin, its still less than Flash as its not "Flash+Safari" and has far less threads, the CPU wont have to work as hard and you save power and therefore battery life. Once HTML5 becomes hardware accelerated, it'll blow Flash out of the water.
H.264 is a codec, and not part of the HTML5 spec.
Those who read my post will note that I specifically referred to the complexity of vector manipulation and interactivity.
If you can find a complex animation manipulating hundreds of vector objects in HTML5 that takes no more CPU power than a static page, you will have found your magic faery.
Until then.....
First Point, H.264 - Yes its a codec wonderful for working it out. The point he was trying to make was that h264 video would be rendered by the browser, not by flash and the output from flash then rendered by the browser.
Interactivity? How many times am I going to have to point out that Quake II video? A full FPS game in 3D with network multiplayer and up-to 60fps in HTML5 and Javascript, nothing else, just HTML5 and Javascript. Is that Interactive? Dear sweet christ yes! Is it more than what flash can do Interactively? Yes, definitly.
As for CPU usuage, I shall point you back to my previous post where a non hardware accelerated HTML5 youtube page gets slightly better performance over a hardware accellerated Flash page. Once HTML5 is hardware accellerated in desktop browsers, bam, Flash will be left in its dust. Lets also not forget how poorly Flash runs on mobile devices (IE: Android) because of how much CPU Power it uses.
So until you can come up with a decent counter argument which isn't just personal opinion in disguise, HTML5+JS has come up being the better and more capable technology. If someone has seen a full 3D, FPS shooter with multiplayer network capabilities then please, be my guest and show it to me.