HTML5 vs Flash - at a Flash Conference

HTML5 vs Flash: we’ve all heard the support in favor of the first from Apple and even Google -- Apple expressly banned Flash-based apps on its mobile platforms, while explicitly allowing for Javascript-based apps; Google, beyond all other HTML5-activism, gave it a mainstream spotlight by showcasing a HTML5 PacMan anniversary game in place of their homepage logo.

The majority of developer conferences this year, including more mainstream ones like the Web 2.0 Expo, had a profusion of sessions on HTML5, with the only major support for Flash being Cal Henderson’s keynote demo of Glitch, the multiplayer Flash-based game. But, what would the verdict be on this HTML5 vs Flash thing -- from the perspective of a Flash conference? Let’s find out at the various sessions of FITC, San Francisco:

As expected, most Flash developers do a bit of that hissing “hex be gone” number on point of HTML5 -- with references to ex-Flash developers becoming HTML5 advocates, as “falling prey to the dark side.” And yet, there were a number of Flash-alternative sessions at FITC -- from Processing (with Ben Fry keynoting), OpenFrameworks, Cinder (Robert Hodgin’s keynote), Eskil Steenberg’s Verse, and even Unity3D (that other browser plug-in, with the shader support that neither Papervision nor Away3D has). Mentions were also made of Context Free, StructureSynth, and NodeBox -- tools beyond Flash to create generative art.

Robert Reinhardt’s “Comparing Web Video Technologies” session verdict of the HTML5 vs Flash issue on video was that Flash wins -- with convenience features like being able to click an inline button for real fullscreen (W3C specifications require a right-click menu for beyond-browserbar fullscreen support from HTML5), and more than a decade’s worth of development, tweaking, and mass adoption. Reinhardt also pointed out the hypocrisy of a trending development method of using HTML5 “with fallback to Flash,” for the many features that HTML5 has yet to finetune, or simply can’t have.

Curiously, Lee Brimelow from Adobe openly recommended at his packed session that HTML5 be used by default on mobile, with fallback to Flash. (He’ll be giving the same talk at MAX in October.)

While there will always be HTML5 xor Flash purists, the consensus so far is that there are shortcomings in both technologies, and sometimes the only workaround is to use a mix of both. This fragmentation will remain until there’s a RIA-swiss-army-knife “perfected” tool that can do everything Flash and HTML5 can do, with efficient resource allocation. Until then, the catchphrase of “HTML5 or Flash” is simply moot rhetorical.