HTML 5 vs Flash

Apple announced it would restrict flash on their product and they stated there are new platforms which can do everything flash can do like HTML 5.

What does HTML 5 do?

HTML 5 is still in the early stages and still there are not many browsers fully supporting it currently.
HTML 5 has the ability to have a lot more than what the current stand HTML can do, below is a list for some of those features:

-editable content
-play video and audio
-create canvas (make drawing apps)

Editable content
HTML 5 has a new tag (contenteditable) which makes a particular area into and editable textbox. The text then can be store either locally or sent to a script.

Play Videos
playing video without flash would be a great feature for a html website and it is easy in HTML 5. You create a video tag which points to a video source but the problem is that here is the only one video format current compatible with HTML 5 is OGG. HTML 5 has not been able to get other formats due to patents on other formats.

Create canvas
HTML 5 can create canvases which can dynamically change shapes as the browser will redraw the canvas. This enables developments of applications and manipulation of shapes.

HTML 5 better than Flash?
HTML 5 is moving in the right direction and can replace flash for certain features but Flash is cross-browser compatible and has been growing with new features for the last century. HTML 5 is far from the stage Flash is now. Flash currently is the only platform to view videos and when HTML 5 becomes more compatible with all the browsers this is an area which flash might not be able to dominate. HTML 5 can provide interactive websites but for more rich media driven website flash will still be the first choice for most web companies.

Conclusion
HTML 5 will in the future work along side flash instead of replacing it. Flash will be made redundant in 40% of what flash is used for. HTML 5 has a lot of promise and I will be looking forward to the coming years.

by Fahim Chowdhury