Planning for the future, HTML 5 or The Flash Platform?
Being a Flash Platform developer, I often have amusing conversations with front-end developers about when and where to use The Flash Platform in lieu of a more native approach like JavaScript. It always happens the same way. I say something mean about HTML, they say something mean about The Flash Platform, and then ultimately we Kumite to decide which approach to take. Lately however, the battle has become personal. Now, instead of being told how “non-search-engine-friendly” The Flash Platform is, I’m being told how I should just move on from The Flash Platform completely. “Why should I do that?” I’m told it’s “because HTML 5 is on the way and once it is adopted, people will stop using Flash.” So, how do I respond to such a statement? I typically just continue to play Texas Hold ‘Em on my iPhone.
Of course I am kidding about the relationship I have with front-end developers. I’m lucky enough to say that the people I collaborate with are very bright people who understand that the end game is to program something that is user friendly and meets it’s intended goals. Sometimes The Flash Platform is the answer, sometimes it’s jQuery. Sometimes the answer is .NET, sometimes it’s your mom. The moral of the story is that every situation should be evaluated before you choose what technology to use. You should never shoehorn a solution for your challenge.
“Way to avoid the issue,” you might be saying to yourself. Fair enough. So, what impact do I think HTML 5 will actually have on The Flash Platform? Well, the short answer is that I think the impact will be minimal. As you may have noticed, Flash isn’t referred to as “Flash” anymore. It is now officially “The Flash Platform.” It encompasses a world of technologies that has over a decade of developer communities behind it. The Flash browser plugin has been installed on 99.0% of Internet-enabled desktops in mature markets as well as a wide range of devices. Developers can build fully functional desktop applications using The Flash Platform via AIR. You may not know it, but you have probably installed an app on your iPhone that was built using The Flash Platform. The RIA space is dominated by FLEX, a flash actionscript framework. Thanks to sites like YouTube, Flash Video is the primary format for video on the web. Finally, let us not forget that you can make one hell of a great cartoon using Flash. Get the picture? The Flash Platform is to the web what Mr. Burns is to Springfield. Whether you like it or not, it has a stake in everything. Because The Flash Platform is so diverse, there is very little HTML 5 can do to dethrone it.
As you can tell, I am a strong proponent of The Flash Platform. However, I am not a freak about it and as I previously mentioned, HTML 5 will have an effect, albeit a small one, on Flash usage. I believe the impact will be a shift away from using Flash for traditional user interfaces and a return to using HTML and JavaScript for those interfaces. What do I mean by this exactly? The simplest example is a form. Forms are used for everything. When you sign up for a new service on the web, you fill out an online form. In the days of Al Gore and the birth of the internets, forms were built using HTML. However, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked to build a form in Flash instead, because I could make the form look better and be more user friendly. I can make a text box glow red if you leave it blank. I can make new options on the form appear based on your current selection. Not only can I make those new options appear, I can make them slide in from the right side of the page and then have their font change color to be sure that you notice them. The possibilities of making a form more user friendly in Flash is limited only by my imagination. So, if I can do all of that using Flash, why would I use HTML? Well if HTML 5 delivers, creating actions like the ones I just described will be possible and supported in all major browsers. So, this brings us back to the shoehorn. If I can do all of this functionality in the native environment, HTML, why would I use a plugin? The answer is that I wouldn’t. So, that’s the impact.
In a nutshell, The Flash Platform is not going away. However, I think HTML 5 will recapture the traditional interface, which means that “Flash people” will have to focus on what they should be focusing on–the cutting edge.
Code Behind:
I realize that I didn’t talk much about what HTML 5 actually is. Please, investigate it. You won’t be sorry. HTML 5 will do nothing but help “the browser experience” and that is something we can all support.
Popularity: 100% [?]
Tags: Flash, HTML 5
17 Comments »
4 Pingbacks »
-
[...] I wrote a short article for The Esoteric Techie about what I believe the impact of HTML 5 will be on Flash. If you care, check it out, here. [...]
-
[...] This post was Twitted by alicefaucher [...]
-
[...] http://www.theesoterictechie.com/?p=547 [...]
-
[...] Planning for the future, HTML 5 or The Flash Platform? (The Esoteric Techie | Dec 1, 2009) [...]
Leave a comment!
I’m curious to see how the showdown between Apple and Adobe plays out. If the much rumored Apple tablet doesn’t support Flash I imagine Adobe is going to be forced to react.
IMHO all depends on how compatible all HTML5 implementations will become and the number of users that will use HTML5 capable browsers. If they will be compatible and adoption will be >90% our company will start building more HTML5 based sites and less Flash sites (of course always depending on client specs/needs).
My guess is that this will take some times to become the case though and in the meantime we LOVE the cross browserness / cross platformness of Flash even for sites that don’t pers? require Flash and could have been built with DHTML/AJAX!
Good article Chris, but I think you have created a “battle” where there is none. HTML 5 is no more or less a threat to Flash or vis-a-versa. I love both technologies and prior to becoming solely focused on “front-end” programming I leveraged Flash extensively, I feel both have firmly secured their place as the standard-bearers of the internet.
I also believe that Flash and HTML are on the path to convergence, where we will leverage the strengths of both in a much more seamless manner than today. A great example of this is the FluidHTML project [http://www.fluidhtml.com].
Currently I see one fairly large advantage to picking up HTML over “The Flash Platform” and that is the cost of entry. Anyone can write HTML, no special software required, just a text editor. The Flash Platform, on the other hand, is a product of Adobe and requires their tools to author anything, tools that fetch a hefty price.
Good article, thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Thanks for your comment Jon. I would like to say that there are plenty of FREE, open source tools you can use to build Flash applications. OSFlash is a great resource for editors and compilers. http://osflash.org/open_source_flash_projects
Hey Benny, I totally agree. One of the beautiful things about developing in Flash is knowing that it will run the same no matter what the environment is.
Thanks for the info Chris, I was not aware of the open-source tools. Very nice.
As a software engineering manager, for me it definitely is an either/or decision. This summer I hope to transition my team of flash developers entirely to HTML 5. Over the last several years, javascript and html have grown at blazing speed w/ awesome frameworks like jQuery. Now the platform has serious investors such as Apple and Google. I just don’t see how Adobe and the Flash platform will be able to keep up. Can Adobe really keep up w/ Google? I highly doubt it and that’s why I am taking my team over to HTML 5.
i thing Flash Platform is better. i like flash
I’ve been building forms like the ones you describe using HTML and JavaScript for years. You don’t need HTML 5 for that.
“I can make a text box glow red if you leave it blank.”
Good for you. You can do the same thing with JavaScript today. No need for HTML 5 here.
“I can make new options on the form appear based on your current selection.”
You don’t need HTML 5 for this either.
“Not only can I make those new options appear, I can make them slide in from the right side of the page and then have their font change color to be sure that you notice them.”
Again, you can do this in JavaScript. The possibilities of making a form more user friendly using JavaScript and existing HTML is limited only by my imagination. Nothing of what you describe here requires HTML 5.
I’ve been a big Flash/Flex supporter, but am having second thoughts with the lack of support on mobile devices. Who know if/when Flash will appear in iPhone browser (not apps, I’m talking browser), and adoption on Android is really iffy (only on Hero as of today AFAIK). It’s a MAJOR bummer that all the cool stuff you produce just won’t appear on any of the millions of (rapidly growing) smartphones.
Changing course, the current project I’m doing in GWT (a Google toolkit that lets you write in Java and convert to JavaScript). It’s like Flash in the sense you build once and it generally works out of the box on different browsers without messing with JavaScript; and it’s like plain HTML/JavaScript because that’s what it produces. I’m happy so far, feel better than I felt with my earlier Flex project.
Thanks Mike for your thoughts. Happy New Year.
Thanks Sekhar. You bring up a good point. Mobile is still one of the major hurdles in the way of the Flash Platform. However, if I may, I would interject that mobile experiences should be light and quick. I probably wouldn’t use Flash for a mobile site even if I could.
On a side note, the new Google Nexus One supports the latest and greatest Flash Player version 10.1. So, there may be some hope left for Flash making it in the mobile world.
Thanks Bryan,
That is fascinating. I was wondering if teams were actually forced with an “either/or” scenario.
I’m glad to see that you like jQuery. The Esoteric Techie has a friend who is a contributor to the jQuery team. We are all fans of it and support it. In fact, I would recommend that you add him to your list of blogs to follow. >> Brandon Aaron
In response to Adobe keeping up with Google, I think it is all about niche. Adobe has it’s niche and is a clear leader. I don’t see them as “behind” Google in the world of web development tools. However, Google has an enormous talent base and huge funding. I think it is more likely that Google will invent something new rather than try to compete with Adobe’s Flash Player.
One more thing, while I am a big fan of Google, I have noticed that when they purchase and take over existing intellectual properties, the technological progress with those properties slows down. My example would be their acquisition of DoubleClick, the online advertising giant. DoubleClick’s advancements in the space have crawled to a stop. They have spent the last two years trying to grow their customer base, which they have done and which has made them a lot of money, but there has been little to no innovation on the technology front from DoubleClick since the buyout.
Clong,
To me it is an either/or situation because it is easier to have everyone using the same technology and tooling rather than two very different sets of tools. My small team will be more productive if all 7 are using the js+html5 rather than 3 using flash and 4 developing in js + html5. Consolidating on one platform will make it easier to share knowledge between team members rather than having it split between the “flash guys” and the “html5 guys.”
Thanks for sharing Bryan. I think your example is a good resource for people confronted with the same situation.
Looks like Gizmodo is reporting Flash 10 on the Palm Pre has been sighted at CES. I can’t wait to see how/if it works on the upcoming Apple tablet!
Intresting article. Thanks