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Follow UsShekhar Govindarajan,
My take on Flash versus HTML 5:
Yet another debate when one wants to have more control than the other by giving standards as the excuse. The debate is already won by Flash with its huge installed base and millions of sites which use Flash.
Is this Apple's business strategy versus a standard? How will the debate end?
Certainly it is a conflict of their business interests. Perhaps the debate will end when one buys out the other.
How to decide on when to develop on HTML5 and when to develop on Flash? Should the developers prefer one standard over the other?
First, as of this writing, HTML5 is not even released. And early adopters will have to deal with incompatibilities across web browsers. What I suggest is to try going the path of: HTML5 and then Flash. Try using the video and canvas (for streaming video and 2D animation) in HTML5 before hopping to Flash. At the same time, don't kill yourself developing the coolest game using a markup language.
What makes for a standard to be universally acceptable...
Easy to use, backward compatible, consistent implementation.
Vinod Unny,
My take on Flash versus HTML 5:
It is an interesting debate. Flash is quite entrenched with the Web world for providing rich media solutions. HTML5 plans to provide standardized markup that does audio/video/2D canvas that will take away a little bit of this. However Flash has a huge bunch of things that HTML5 simply doesn't have (animation timelines, keyframes, etc.) and if need to be done using only HTML5 will require a huge amount of JavaScript programming. HTML5 is also at least a couple of years away as a standard.
Is HTML5 as a threat to Flash?
Not as such. Yes, it will take away some of the lower end stuff like showing video/audio and some simpler 2D stuff. But I see SilverLight as a bigger threat to Flash. It's easier, has better tools and is enterprise accepted.
Should the developers prefer one standard over the other?
All are important for a developer. For designers, HTML5, Flash and Silverlight are essential tools of the trade.
What makes for a standard to be universally acceptable?
Rich feature set, universal availability, and enterprise acceptability.
Sandeep Dasgupta,
My take on Flash versus HTML 5:
This debate is a natural consequence of a change ? the HTML5 specifications have opened up an alternative to some of the features of Flash ? and when people have choices, they weigh the pros and cons, leading to debate. The fact that this is also a ?world-wide standards vs a private firm's intellectual property? kind of issue makes the debate more passionate. We should encourage this debate - debate is always good, a healthy competition would obviously improve both standards and benefit the industry ? so let's start thinking ?HTML5 and Flash? rather than ?HTML5 vs. Flash?.
Is HTML 5 as a threat to Flash?
Not really. Firstly, let's keep in mind that they are inherently different things ? Flash is an animation-centric product, while HTML is all about text markup for rendering; Flash sits at the top of the web technology stack, while HTML forms the base.
How to decide on when to develop on HTML 5 and when to develop on Flash?
The choice of standard would depend on the type of application being developed. I believe for developers of high-end games and animation, Flash will remain the first choice. On the other hand, developers doing typical web applications will be able to use HTML5 (and SVG and CSS and WebGL and JavaScript) to do almost everything that they need to do ? even things for which they may currently be using Flash. Not to forget though, if developers need a codebase to be built into both web and desktop versions, they would have to choose Flash or Silverlight.