Check out the collection of commentary over at ActiveTuts+ from industry experts and community leaders over the manufactured “HTML vs. Flash” debate. Some really good points are made, all around. It’s also good to see that while these statements were gathered as individual contributions, they mostly tend to gel into a unified narrative.
I am humbled to have my statement included alongside so many others:
Ever since the inception of this debate, I’ve held the position that the majority of dialogue around “HTML vs. Flash” is an intentional misrepresentation of facts and usage. There is no better example of this than Steve Jobs’ counterfactual letter, “Thoughts on Flash”; a message clearly designed to provide ignorant media outlets and technology zealots with cleverly crafted soundbytes used to encourage a position against Flash as a viable platform on the web and on devices.
HTML5 is the natural progression of the HTML specification. As such, it poses no threat to the Flash Platform because HTML and Flash have always existed as complimentary technologies. Why would anyone expect HTML, as a specification, to stand still? In my opinion, it has done so for far too long and is overdue an abundance of rich, new features. Does this in any way harm Flash as a platform? Of course not; Flash advances at a much faster rate than HTML, unrestrained by standards bodies and bickering between opposing corporations. The addition of capabilities with HTML only augments embedded Flash in the browser, as these new capabilities (geolocation data, for example) can be fed into a Flash interface through local connection or via initialization variables.
I actually find it humorous that the fate of Flash is called into question at this time of great advances. Flash Player 10.1 took a long time to emerge since a massive rewrite was required to allow a good experience across desktops, mobile devices, and eventually the digital living room. Now that this foundation has been set, we are seeing some startling growth across numerous areas of platform implementation. The beginnings of which can be seen in the upcoming 3D “Molehill” APIs, the super-performant StageVideo classes, the first glimpses of multi-threading, and upcoming 64-bit runtimes across Windows, Linux, and Mac OS. This doesn’t even consider advances in the AIR runtime and associated frameworks.
It’s a great time to be a Flash developer – and a great time for HTML too!
Excellent take on the subject. It’s so depressing see acres of comments on various major news sites by the anti-Flash brigade who simply know no better. Flash has it’s weaknesses, but HTML5 certainly isn’t a replacement or “the future” as some may put it. The future for HTML though, oh yes! The forthcoming Molehill edition of Flash looks great, particularly the near-0% CPU usage in the demos, and an excellent example of how a plug-in can move dramatically quicker than a standard defined by a cooperative.
The HTML5 vs Flash debate has always been silly as they’re two very different things. Furthermore many seem to gloss over or are unaware the fact that HTML5 is at the mercy of each browsers implementation of HTML5, a possible developer nightmare for big projects. With Flash it’s genuinely been true to “compile once run anywhere” for years.
Your take on Steve Jobs’s letter was spot on. Going further, the motivation appears to be based on people playing Flash games on the web for free costs him potential revenue in the appstore. It’s a reflection on his own success, that many took his letter as gospel. But also very sad for the end user that enjoys a more restricted, more expensive and less free Internet as a whole. Given the number of people that are calling for Flash to be sent to the gallows in the belief that it would be a good thing, I don’t think it’s any exaggeration to think of this as the greatest example of digital trickery in recent times!
A weakened Flash strengthens Apple’s grip on so many things, and it’s already been shown that they don’t like to play fair in their pursuit of both control and profits.