Apple says Adobe is working to sabotage HTML5. Adobe says HTML5 is no threat to Flash. Everybody's watching the fight, and we love the six-fingered tattooed fist in the image, guys!While we're all bickering, could we help by pointing out what Flash is?
In the first place, Flash is not an Adobe innovation. Flash was originally developed in 1992 by a company called Macromedia, when it created a browser plug-in originally for Netscape Navigator. Life went on this way for 13 years, all the way up until Adobe bought out Macromedia in 2005, in a hostile takeover which also acquired Dreamweaver. Since 2005, Flash has gone from being a relatively controversy-free plug-in to being a hotbed of drama and turmoil.
But here's all Flash is: a way to script actions and animate images in a web browser. That's it. It is made out of just three things: SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), XML (actually just the SMIL-type functions, for multimedia markup), and a scripting language called Actionscript (which, as is plainly evident to anyone who's coded in it, is just an ECMAScript implementation nearly identical to Javascript).
It is very difficult to justify this plug-in in the year 2010, when it can very easily be mimicked with open standards that have existed for years. In fact, that's exactly the case with what we're seeing now:
- "All major desktop browsers, and many minor browsers, have some level of SVG support, except for Internet Explorer." No less than Tim Berners-Lee has criticized Microsoft for failing to implement SVG browser support.
- Then we have AJAX. For basic user interface controls AJAX blows Flash away. There's even the AJAX Animator project.
- Javascript itself is now sturdy enough to deliver comparable performance. Here's a Tetris game done using nothing but SVG and Javascript. Here's Lemmings done in DHTML and Javascript. And look what you can do with a JQuery plug-in. We could go on and on.
- And then there's Java. Java is open-source now. The Java plug-in still works, and it does much more than Flash can do anyway.
So it isn't a case of Adobe having to defend its turf. Its turf has already been invaded, occupied, settled, and homesteaded. It lost its last leg to stand on as early as 1998, when Netscape spawned the Mozilla browser by releasing their code under the Netscape Public License.
Peter Brittain
Web Design Perth
Posts
5 comments:
Hey Pete,
Long time no speak. Thanks for the interesting read, you raise some very valid points. Whilst not wishing to rain on your parade, it would be remiss of me to not point out some of the blatant errors of your post.
"Flash was originally developed in 1992 by a company called Macromedia" - Flash actually started its life out as a product called FutureSplash (in 1996) which was subsequently acquired by Macromedia in 1997 (I was actually using FS at the time)
"all Flash is: a way to script actions and animate images in a web browser." - To the un-educated this is all Flash is good for. The reality is that its actually used for a whole lot more. Including HD video streaming, enterprise based rich internet applications (used by companies such as NASDAQ, NATO, and many fortune 500's), mobile applications (via FlashLite and soon iPhone) and desktop based applications (as a major component of the Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR)).
"it is made out of just three things: SVG, XML, and a scripting language called Actionscript" - Actually it's made out of a compiled C++ application, that aside, Flash Player contains a custom vector-rendering engine (which doesn't use SVG), 2 x virtual machines (AVMs) which 'execute' ActionScript (the scripting language of Flash). As well (amongst other things) support for multi-platform streaming (and network) architectures, video hardware acceleration, content protection and multi-touch UI's .
"It is very difficult to justify this plug-in in the year 2010" - tell that to Hulu, ABC, NBC, YouTube, NFL, NHL, and the 100's of other organisations currently using Flash to stream HD video content. Or the 1000's of Flash game developers who currently use Flash as their development platform of choice.
The Java plug-in ... does much more than Flash can do anyway. - Not true. Flash has dominated the client-side web application space for a number of years. Flash Player's lightweight file-size, ubiquitous market penetration and cross-platform/browser compatibility make it the ideal platform for rich client applicaitons. It's dominance of this space has proved so much of a threat, that in the last few years, both Sun and Microsoft felt compelled to release their own rich-client plug-ins with JavaFX and Silverlight.
Sorry to sound like such a Flash FanBoi here - but I've been working with the technology for over 10 years, and have heard your arguments many times before.
FWIW i'm a huge fan of all rich client technologies (including: AJAX, Silverlight and JavaFX) i've developed with them all. The reality is, that whilst Flash is far from perfect, there's no disputing the benefits of developing a client-side solution once, and knowing it will run seamlessly across multiple browsers/platforms (unlike Java, DHTML or AJAX). As a one-stop technology, Flash is streets ahead of other solutions out there including the much hyped impending HTML5.
Cheers
Matt Voerman
I only knew a little bit about the whole situation between the companies. It is nice to read more and know more about what is all going on.
HTML5 would be great to have as search engine does not recognise flash contents
Intresting conversation between writer and Adobe guy....loved the answers
You bring up the most reasonable points in the whole flash vs. html5 argument. Flash was never considered a very efficient system, and there's really not much of a need for it. Between ajax and other open standards, not to mention youtube for any necessary video, I think it's time to move on.
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