Emerging HTML5 Technology & Adobe Flash

Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) is one of the finest markup languages available for Web pages. It is a way to develop structured documents. It also helps embed images and objects to create interactive Web pages. The latest version of HTML, HTML5, was published as a Working Draft by the WC3 on Jan. 22, 2008. The World Wide Web Consortium is the maintainer of HTMLand CSSstandards.

HTML5 is presently under development as the next revision of the current HTMLstandard. Like the older ver-sions, HTML5 is also a standard for developing structured Web pages on the World Wide Web. It integrates new features like video playback, drag and drop. Traditionally these features were available through third party browser plug-ins such as Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight and Google Gears. Still it is an ongoing development process, although components of HTML5 are almost finished and are now implemented in certain browsers before the fully equipped version has reached its final status. It seems some of the HTML5 features have compatibility issues in certain browsers, especially Internet Explorer. It is estimted that HTML5 will attain W3CRecommendation by late 2010.

Exciting Features of HTML5

HTML5 incorporates new features and attributes that will enable typical usage on modern Web pages. Canvas

Canvas, the drawable region in HTMLcode with height and width attributes, enables users to dynamically generate graphics, draw graphics, make photo compositions, and do animations without having to rely on external plug-ins. It leverages the underlying principles of HTML, JavaScript and CSS, and pushes graphics creation to a new level.

Geo-Location API

The geo-location APIenables sharing your location with trusted websites. The details of your location are available for JavaScript on the page. It can integrate a global positioning system and network signals such as Wi- Fi, Bluetooth, IPaddress, etc. However, this is a restricted feature; the application permission should be provided by the user for this feature.

Application Caches

Application Caches allow storing Web apps and accessing them without having to connect to the Internet. Google Gears is an implementation of HTML5 codes for Applications Cache. We can have access to them without having to connect to the Internet or even access it through external clients like Outlook or Thunderbird. This HTML5 feature works on Safari 4 and Chrome, but not in Firefox 3.5.

Hyper-Threading for Web browsers

Hyper-Threading for Web browsers helps in using separate background threads for processing without affecting the performance of a Webpage. Applications with heavy scripts can use this feature. Firefox 3.5b, Opera and Safari have shown support to this feature, whereas IEhasn’t.

There are replacements for common uses of generic block and online elements. New elements are added to provide new functionality through a standardized interface, such as the multimedia elements. Some features of HTML4.01 have been eliminated which include presentational elements such as font and center whose effects could be achieved using Cascading Style Sheets. DOM scripting like JavaScript, is given some more stress in Web behavior.

The HTML5 is designed to be backward compatible including parsing of older versions of HTML. The newer version is not at all based on SGMLregardless of the similarity of its markup. It comes out with a new beginning or introductory line which has a similar look like an SGMLdocument type declaration which helps in standards-compliant rendering in almost all Web browsers that uses ‘DOCTYPEsniffing’.

HTML5 also includes another WHATWGspecification “Web Forms 2.0,” scripting application programming in-terfaces (APIs). Existing document object model, DOM, interfaces are extended and some real features are docu-mented. There are also new APIs, such as the canvas element, Timed media playback, Offline storage database, Document editing, Drag-and-drop, Cross-document messaging, Browser history management, MIMEtype and protocol handler registration, and Microdata. An HTML5 browser is flexible in handling incorrect syntax. New HTML5 constructs could be safely ignored by old browsers.

HTMLvs. Flash

Adobe Flash was formerly called Macromedia Flash, introduced in 1996. It is a multimedia platform that is popular for creating animation. It has many features which help Web pages become more interactive. Flash is placed as a tool for "Rich Internet Applications" as it is used for advertisements and games in interactive Web pages. The latest version of Adobe flash is the Flash CS5, released on April 12, 2010. Flash works with vector and raster graphics to provide animation of text, drawings, and still images. It can capture user input via mouse, keyboard, microphone, and camera, as well. It helps in bidirectional streaming of audio and video.

Flash works on an object-oriented language named ActionScript. It has JavaScript plug-in integration, transparency in the movies, XMLsupport, HTMLtext formatting added for dynamic text, alias text support, timeline effects, Web services integration, video import wizard, Media Playback components, Data components, data binding APIs, better integration with other Adobe products such as Adobe Photoshop, basic 3D object manipulation, object-based animation. It also supports publishing of iPhone applications. Adobe Flash Player, which is available free, is used to deliver these contents. The latest version of Adobe Flash Player is version 10. Until the advent of HTML5, displaying video on a Web page required browser plugins. Flash Audio is most commonly encoded in MP3 or AAC.

With the emergence of compact and plugin-free HTML5, Flash is facing the axe from everyone from Apple to YouTube, and also from users who are tired of the security vulnerabilities and the sluggish browsers Flash brought in. Will HTML5 mark the end of Flash? Rajesh Pandita, Director, Amicus Infotech, a New Delhi–based designing company, says the changes are obvious. “There are a few hardware technologies which don't support Flash like the iPhone. HTML5 will remove these glitches and is definitely threatening Flash on Web,” Pandita added.

As a designer heavily depending on Flash for multimedia designs, Pandita realizes the scope and benefits of a technology like HTML5. “It’s going to be the next de facto standard of new versions of browsers. The popular Mi-crosoft Internet Explorer in its new avatar version 9 will be embracing it fully. Google's Chrome is already a ready platform for HTML5,” he added.

“With HTML5, you no longer need to use Flash plugins in your browser. HTML5-compatible browsers will smoothly run them. Additionally, HTML5 will give flexibility for Web developers to design mobile applications which may in turn lower the exorbitant mobile development cost,” Pandita finds.

Apple recently announced its latest gadget, this time, the compact iPad, with the absence of Flash Player. Apple says that “Flash is a CPUhog and including support for the technology in Apple's mobile line-up would negatively impact battery life.” Has Apple foreseen the end of Flash? The gadgets seem to have got in with the HTML5 vs. Flash debate. Now the battle is going to be bitter as Apple already announced that they will no longer be aiming to support Flash on their other gadgets and mobile device browsers. It will create a huge impact as Apple owns 25 percent of the mobile browser market. HTML5 has now become one of the key words in the Web design industry.

Adobe’s Chief Technology Officer Kevin Lynch criticized Apple saying, with its reluctance to include Flash on its “magical device, iPad” buyers will effectively see a crippled Internet. It looked as if he was not moved by Apple’s decision, for he said they are delivering Flash Player 10.1 for “smartphones with all but one of the top manu-facturers,” clearly mentioning Nexus One as one such device and adding that the software also works on tablets, Netbooks, and Net-enabled TVs.

“Flash in the browser provides a competitive advantage to these devices because it will enable their customers to browse the whole Web...We are ready to enable Flash in the browser on these devices if and when Apple chooses to allow that for its users, but to date we have not had the required cooperation from Apple to make this happen,” he fumed. Flash has surely spread to computers, with better than 98 percent penetration, according to Adobe's statistics. It is there with graphical animations. More than that, its success is cemented by enabling an easy streaming video mechanism to a Web page that had been plagued with aggressive and incompatible technology from Microsoft, Apple, and Real, Lynch added.

With the emergence of HTML5, playing videos will be now handled by the browser itself. Presently, most Web pages are using Flash players for this job. Web sites like YouTube already started experimenting HTML5 support. HTML5 gets in those areas that have been held up by Flash for the present time.

Jan Ozer, an expert in video encoding technologies, finds the following differences between the two technologies.

• In Macs: While using safari, HTML5 was the most efficient and consumed less CPUthan Flash using only 12.39 percent CPU. With Flash 10.0, CPUutilization was at 37.41 percent and with Flash 10.1, it dropped to 32.07 percent. Google Chrome, Flash and HTML5 were both equally inefficient. With Firefox, Flash was only slightly less efficient than in Safari, but better than in Chrome.
• In Windows: Safari wouldn't play HTML5 videos, so there was no way to test that. However, Flash 10.0 used 23.22 percent CPUbut Flash 10.1 only used 7.43 percent CPU. Google Chrome was more efficient on Windows than Mac. Playback with Flash Player 10.0 was about 24 percent more efficient than HTML5, while Flash Player 10.1 was 58 percent more efficient than HTML5. On Firefox, Flash 10.1 dropped CPUutilization to 6 percent from 22 percent in Flash 10.0. In IE8, Flash 10.0 used 22.41 percent CPUand Flash 10.1 used 14.62 percent CPU

Ozer also determined that the key to better Flash performance was dependent upon whether or not it could access hardware acceleration. According to Adobe, “hardware acceleration is not supported under either Linux or Mac OSX, the latter because Mac OSXdoes not expose access to the required APIs.” However, Adobe said the Flash Player team will continue to evaluate adding hardware acceleration to Linux and Mac OSXin future releases.

There are some other areas that HTML5 supports that Flash doesn’t. Many of them are having an edge over Flash. Flash should have to work hard to get in to these features to compete with the newly emerging HTML5. But gaming is a great example of an area that Flash excels over HTML5. Most of the social networking sites are implemented with Flash games, which many users are interested in. There are also other interesting social media applications based on Flash. All of these are key to the running of social networking sites.

The Web - being a vast and crucial platform for individuals, society and business -- cannot be under the control of a single vendor, according to experts. There’s a huge body on the Web that is using Flash technology; it cannot be wiped out altogether. However, there is a chance that the Web could pave the way for emerging technologies like HTML5. We will find out in the next couple of years, according to experts.