W3C has given HTML 5 such a mission in the HTML 5 proposal, which will make up for the shortcomings of the previous generation of HTML. Specifically, it will realize the functions that Flash, Silverlight, and JavaFX can achieve. Whether HTML 5, the rising star of HTML, will change the rules of the game for Web applications, and whether it will make these rich Web plug-ins a thing of the past, InfoWorld columnist Paul Krill wrote an article and discussed this.
The rich promise of HTML 5
Dion Almaer, co-founder of the Ajaxian website and development tools instructor at Mozilla, said HTML 5 was actually late in bringing vector graphics and video to the Web. In HTML 5, 2D drawing technologies such as Canvas have always been valued by companies such as Apple, Google, and Mozilla (although Microsoft also appreciates some features of HTML 5, they still do not support Canvas).
In HTML 5, features such as Canvas, local storage, and Web Workers allow us to do more. Ben Galbraith, another co-founder of the Ajaxian website and Mozilla development tools instructor, said that local storage allows users to continue using the Web offline, and Web Workers make it easy to perform complex operations in the next generation of Web applications, allowing some users to Long running tasks run in the background.
Ian Fette, Google Chrome browser project manager, said that Web applications will become more interesting, they will become faster, and will provide a better user experience, making the boundaries between online Web applications and desktop applications increasingly blurred.
Some features of HTML 5 have been implemented
After 5 years of work, the HTML 5 details were released in 2008. Some of the details have been implemented in some browsers. However, the full functionality of HTML 5 will still not be completed in the next few years.
Vlad Vukicevic, technical director of the Mozilla Firefox project, said that HTML 5 supports video, and Firefox 3.5 has just added video support. Google Chrome also supports video tags. Microsoft supports certain HTML 5 features in Internet Explorer 8, such as local storage and AJAX. Navigation, and multiple DOM prototypes.
Opera's Web evangelist Molly E. Holzschlag said Opera supports Canvas and plans to support video. Apple also supports video and audio tags in its Safari browser, as well as Canvas technology (Canvas was invented by Apple).
The HTML 5 side: Throw away those plugins
Almaer said that although companies such as Adobe, Microsoft, and Sun (soon to be Oracle) have each implemented their own multimedia technologies on the Web, HTML 5 may eventually take away their jobs. Essentially, what HTML 5 can do is no different than what these companies are doing, and JavaFX will also be threatened, said RedMonk analyst Michael Cote.
Ian Hickson, co-designer of the HTML 5 specifications, said that the goal of HTML 5 is to liberate the Web from those non-open rich plug-ins. They are independent providers and are not suitable for the open Web. Hickson said that using the products of specialized companies is a risk for developing the Web. What if they stop developing, or start charging? Hickson added that, like Windows before it, it would be terrible if our primary development platform was controlled by a single vendor.
Firefox director Vukicevic said that Mozilla wants to remain open and ensure that technologies such as video are not in the hands of certain companies, but whether HTML 5 and Canvas can ultimately truly replace Flash, Silverlight and JavaFX depends on developers. Vukicevic believes that IE8 does not support some features of HTML 5, which is a problem for developers. In view of the IE browser's market share, developers must either use Microsoft's API to provide additional development, or use technologies such as Flash.
Plugin side: they are better and already implemented
Although Adobe, Microsoft and Sun were all involved in the development of HTML 5 specifications, they all said their technology was necessary. HTML 5 is still a developing standard that may take 5 to 10 years to be finalized, so it's too early to make comparisons. A Microsoft spokesperson said that Silverlight still needs to exist because it includes advanced features such as a better programming model, C#, 3D capabilities and the ability to run outside the browser.
Dave Story, vice president of development tools at Adobe, said that HTML 5 faces many challenges. The browser market is still fragmented and compatibility issues between browsers are very serious. The timeline of HTML 5 shows that the final HTML 5 + CSS 3 may take 10 years. It will take time to finalize, during which time Flash will continue to evolve and provide a better user experience.
James Gosling, vice president of SUN and known as the father of Java, said that JavaFX is much better than HTML 5 in terms of rendering, performance, and performance.
Analyst Cote said that there is currently no immediate threat to these rich Web plug-ins. It will take many years to implement the functions in these plug-ins. He hopes that these plug-in technologies will continue to exist even after the release of HTML 5. Google's Fette agrees that HTML 5 is just a starting point, and companies like Google will also introduce their own technologies, such as dragging and dropping images to the Web.
Several industry giants will face choices
Most of the companies involved in HTML 5 are either browser manufacturers or rich Web application tool developers, but rarely both, except Microsoft. Almaer said that Microsoft will also be in a dilemma because of this. Microsoft has spent a lot of time on Silverlight. Great effort, the purpose of the Silverlight team's existence is to provide enhancements to browsers. If HTML 5 is easily implemented, what else will Silverligth do?
Google will also have to make certain choices. For example, their Youtube uses Flash to implement videos. HTML 5's support for videos will make them reconsider this issue. They need to make difficult choices in terms of cost and effectiveness.