There has been a lot of quarrel about HTML5 recently. Many people think that the emergence of HTML5 will kill Flash instantly, so much so that there is a huge quarrel in major web front-end development forums. A few words in the forum were not enough to satisfy me, so I had to talk openly in my own one-third of an acre of land. Also be a magic stick and look forward to the future of web front-end development. First of all, the HTML5 mentioned here does not only refer to HTML5 itself, but generally refers to the entire web front-end technology included in HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript and new browser APIs.
Who needs HTML5?
Google needs it most! Apple Jobs also require it. But these two definitely have their own agenda. It doesn't matter to Microsoft, they still have Silverlight anyway.
Mozilla/Firefox, a non-profit organization, may have a more noble goal and support w3c standards. Opera's browser market share is so small that it probably doesn't have much thought yet.
Google's cloud computing empire is short of a client that supports RIA (Rich Internet Applications) rich Internet applications. Just imagine that when HTML5 becomes popular and more applications turn to BS mode, the desktop software ecological environment of the Microsoft empire will be greatly threatened. Google, which has been coveted for many years, must be the biggest beneficiary. When you can use free Google Doc with similar functions to MS Word on a computer with a free operating system, will you still pay for Microsoft Word? Will you still spend money on an operating system when all you need to do your office applications is open a browser window? Google's Chrome OS operating system interface already illustrates this intention.
Jobs also needs HTML5. He has a small calculation. He wants the browser to natively support video and audio, so that the iPhone and iPad do not need to embed Flash. Of course, Jobs cannot allow Flash to be included in the iPhone OS. Otherwise, who will buy the games in the App Store? At the same time, if a large number of applications can be implemented based on browsers, users will not be stuck with Windows desktop applications. Who doesn't love a beautiful Mac computer.
They chose HTML5 for greater ambitions, hoping that HTML5 would bring about changes in the entire software ecosystem while avoiding Flash, which was not under their control.
Macromedia and later the leader Adobe grasped the development needs of Internet applications and continuously improved Flash, making it beyond the functions of the browser itself. Major browser manufacturers have also seen the demand for this kind of application, and are not content with a function that should be implemented by the browser. They have implemented it with a plug-in of several megabytes in size, and it has become popular. So we spared no effort to promote HTML5, and targeted Flash.
Do users want HTML5? What users want is not technology, but applications, and experience. If you can use Ajax to implement a happy farm, I don't think anyone will care whether it is made of Flash.
Do developers want HTML5? That requires a mature HTML5+CSS3+JS development environment, and each browser needs to provide a unified user experience, that is, full compatibility with standards. New learning costs also need to be added.
Advantages of Flash?
How is Flash better than HTML5? Performance, functionality? What if HTML5 will have a DOM similar to all built-in objects in Flash, as well as GPU 2D and 3D acceleration? This is not impossible, after all, HTML5 is still only a draft. Of course, Flash can also be updated continuously.
development group
I think the advantage of Flash lies in developers. After more than ten years of accumulation, many excellent artists, programmers and interactive designers have concentrated on developing interactive media on the Flash platform. It has also enabled countless class libraries to have AS versions, such as FLARToolKit, Touchlib, OpenCV and other C++ libraries for interaction and image analysis, which have been transplanted to the Flash platform. There is a relatively mature and open source Flex framework for RIA applications. More and more companies are trying to use Flex to replace Ajax frameworks such as Ext to provide customers with a better RIA application experience.
sustainable development
FlashPlayer is a closed system, controlled exclusively by Adoeb. Compared with the open HTML5 standard, this is a weakness, but also a technical advantage. It can be very flexible and can add new technologies and new functions at any time. HTML5 is an open standard. Since it is a standard, it means it will not change frequently. Flash improvements and upgrades only require users to upgrade the FlashPlayer plug-in, which is relatively lightweight for users. Improvements in HTML standards mean upgrading browsers, which is a relatively heavyweight user operation, especially since many people still don't understand what a browser is.
Once the HTML5 open standard is finalized, it will have a long life cycle. It will be a sufficiently advanced feature today, but it will be ten years from now. Just like when we used HTML4+CSS2+JS and were complacent and thought it was enough to express Web applications, who could have imagined the world opened up by the continuous improvement of Flash today. Maybe ten years later we should discuss the topic of HTML6 killing Flash again.
Beyond web applications
If SUN could pay attention to Java Applets back then, perhaps there would be no Flash today, and SUN would not be in the position of being acquired. And now Adobe AIR has made Flash surpass Java Applets, making Flash surpass the web and break away from the browser. Flash's functions have been continuously enhanced to this day, and it is also constantly compressing the application space of its big brother Director in the field of multimedia. The realization of multi-touch, face recognition, Socket communication synchronization, AR augmented reality, real-time video and other functions on the Flash platform has led to more and more interactive multimedia projects using Flash solutions.
I hope that Adobe will continue to expand the functionality of the Adobe AIR platform and improve performance. More and more cross-platform desktop applications can be implemented on AIR.
Disadvantages of Flash?
FlashPlayer copyright is private.
The content of swf files is relatively closed and not search engine friendly.
Security risks of plug-ins.
Compared with the learning curve and learning cost of Ajax technology.
FlashPlayer 94% installation rate!=100%.
iPhoneOS clearly does not support Flash, and the iPad’s first-day orders of 120,000 are expected to open up a big market.
3D hardware acceleration is not supported. If FlashPlayer supports 3D hardware acceleration, it will definitely rewrite the existing 2D vector engine. In view of the performance of ShockWave 3D, it is difficult for FlashPlayer hardware 3D to have a good user experience.
What does HTML5 replace Flash with?
Function: HTML5 is still only a draft. Judging from the submitted content, many more semantic tags have been added. New tags mean adding new classes to the DOM. If the browser is compared to a large Flash player, HTML5 It's nothing more than adding new classes and new APIs. These APIs are then called by JavaScript. If HTML5 is to completely replace Flash, it must at least provide similar functions to Flashplayer10. This shouldn't be a problem. Adding WebSocket, WebSQL, WebGL... or even WebQt, WebMFC can be endlessly imaginative. Or simply turn the browser into a large virtual machine to fulfill Java's desktop wish. None of this is a problem if there is sufficient demand momentum.
Performance: In many articles written by HTML5 radicals, they all point out that the current inefficiency of Flash causes browsing crashes. Is Flash really so inefficient? Definitely not, it's just caused by the abuse of Flash and uneven web front-end developers. Similarly, if you use IE's JS engine to write an Ajax version of the XX farm, and if all page advertising animations are written in JS, I think that would be called inefficiency. If Flash is really inefficient, why are so many web games not made with Ajax? Why are many well-optimized Flash3D game scenes very smooth, but a 2D XX farm can slow down your Core 2? Uninformed and half-baked developers always attribute browser unresponsiveness and crashes to Flash inefficiency. Therefore, if HTML5 wants to replace Flash in the future, it must have an efficient 2D/3D graphics and text rendering engine and an efficient JavaScript engine. This can bring a better user experience. Are all browser manufacturers ready for these? Chrome and Opera appear to be going this route.
Compatibility: The HTML4 standard has been in existence for more than ten years, and today we will also write down the CSS style name of fxckIE6. Browser compatibility will be the biggest problem, especially HTML5 and CSS3 after adding many features. How do the big guys behind IE, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari coordinate? There is a contradiction here. To develop differentiated products, we must provide homogeneous functions. Functions such as JS performance, tab browsing, synchronized collections, and plug-ins that improve user experience are all areas of differentiation. If there is something like ActiveX that is IE only again, it would be better to keep the HTML4 method unchanged.
Development model: Flash IDE unites countless outstanding artists, UI designers and interactive program designers to ultimately achieve Flash. This is also related to the appeal of Macromedia and Adobe in the graphic design and interactive design groups. HTML5 interaction will take JavaScript to a new level, which will definitely require a mature development environment. Continue DW+Firebug? Or DW will be upgraded to a new HTML5 interactive development IDE, or Microsoft VS will do this, or Eclipse? Only a mature development environment can gather talents, stimulate endless creativity, and bring more content. Rich content naturally brings more users.
Deployment: This is the most important issue. Without this step, everything is zero. How to deploy the new version of Flash? It is OK to update the plug-in based on more than 90% desktop share. How to deploy HTML5 and update the browser, this is a bit difficult, take a look at the tenacious IE6. I heard someone suggesting that Microsoft include IE updates in the system ServerPack. I can only say that this idea is good, but the antitrust sledgehammer will definitely kill Microsoft. So how to guide users to upgrade their browsers? It is not a problem for the Internet "Core User". Currently, many people are using the Chrome development version that supports some features of HTML5 and CSS3. But those "Light Users" may not even understand the relationship between the window they use to read web pages every day and the browser. This requires an HTML5 killer application to guide it. "Light Users" will almost never upgrade the browser based on technology, they will only upgrade based on application needs. For example, YouTube no longer supports IE6 users, so users who like YouTube videos will upgrade to IE6 before visiting again. Users will not choose to update IE6 because of its poor compatibility with HTML standards. This is inevitable. So where is the killer application of HTML5? Or do they all have the influence and appeal of Youtube? And for a website without such appeal, who would rashly take the lead in supporting HTML5 and requiring users to upgrade their browsers? These websites will inevitably fall into a prisoner's dilemma, and in repeated prisoner's dilemma, the game is played repeatedly. Finally, we will fully enter the HTML5 era. This process may be short or long. After all, the existing web front-end has not reached the point of collapse, but it is because of the impressive performance of plug-ins such as Flash and JS frameworks such as jQuery.
Summarize
HTML5 is not an urgent need for user applications, but more a strategic need for manufacturers to try to change the software ecological landscape.
In view of the past performance of major browsers, the compatibility of HTML5 remains to be seen and it is not appropriate to migrate applications immediately.
HTML5 requires a mature and complete development environment, which Notepad + browser cannot handle.
With the explosion of HTML5 features, the browser must have an efficient graphics engine and script engine.
HTML5 needs a killer application to attract and guide users to upgrade their browsers, and ultimately complete the deployment of HTML5 terminals.
Flash is a constantly evolving technology with strong flexibility. HTML5 cannot completely replace Flash, and many developers will not abandon Flash outright.
I hope that Adobe AIR can develop better, so that Flash can surpass browser web applications and span operating systems, with better development and more applications.
Text/IT168