Adobe Flash CS5 Exports Animations To HTML5 Canvas 166
An anonymous reader writes "Adobe's Flash CS5 will seek to make the Flash runtime less relevant with support for exporting animations to HTML5 canvas. Seth Weintraub from 9to5mac writes, 'In a previous post, I'd wondered why Adobe didn't spend its time building HTML5 authoring tools rather than putting so much time/energy/money into its Flash -> iPhone Apps exporter tool for Flash CS5. As it turns out, Adobe does have some, albeit rudimentary, HTML5 Canvas exporting tools, as demonstrated in the video above.'"
Flashblock and cookies (Score:4, Interesting)
Smart move and good news (Score:5, Interesting)
Adobe has always been more about good editing tools, rather than runtime platforms. If everybody starts dropping flash support, why would they cling desperately to the flash plugin? Having their tools export to HTML5 is a smart move. Keeps them relevant, and they won't have to support their own runtime platform anymore. Instead, they'll have to compete, which is good news for everybody else.
Back to the Future (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Smart move and good news (Score:4, Interesting)
This was the logical step to go from the start.
Adobe has kept that quiet whilst pretending to be worried about flash going down the pan.
Flash is just an export file format, and they can now export to a slightly less bloated/featured format. this type of technology will cement Adobe more into the web development industry.
If Adobe are smart they will be the number 1 HTML5 authoring tools around.
Very impressive.
Re:Back to the Future (Score:3, Interesting)
Or another way to say it is:
"Adobe tried to compete with Macromedia by supporting web standards instead of Flash; after Macromedia kicked their ass due to the much faster development cycle (they were not constrained by any standards comitee), they learned the lesson, acquired Macromedia and did the development no their own".
Take a look at Apple... the only HTML5 standard they are supporting is the one already implemented in Webkit (coincidentally, it's their own platform). Sure, they've put up a "standards group" to make it seem like they care about others think, but the WHATWG standard is really "what Apple thinks best suits their interest".
I'm curious though how long it will take until browsers start becoming "CPU hogs", and "flash crashed my browser window" turns into "javascript/canvas/svg/whatever crashed my browser window" (or the full browser, depending on how good the browser implementation is.
(oh, btw, about multi-platform and "Mac users being second-hand citizens because Adobe is evil".... I hear that Safari implementation on Windows is pretty crappy compared to Mac. And how's Safari doing on Linux, does anybody care to tell me? :) )
Re:Smart move and good news (Score:5, Interesting)
I really must disagree. While Macromedia made Dreamweaver, it has been under Adobe control for a while and very little has changed. My brief list of why Dreamweaver might be seriously hampered in the next evolution of web(HTML5):
- Data IDE to a database virtually unchanged since Dreamweaver 4.
- Broken layer support such as nested layers. Try positioning a layer mid vertical and horizontal and then try editing that in Dreamweaver.
- No virtualization for modern javascript techniques such as httpRequest, let alone HTML 5.
- GUI implementation of CSS is poor. Old Skool technique of writing the style sheet first is fastest.
In summary, Dreamweaver has not got these technologies right. I feel it is in real danger of dropping the ball. Adobe's attitude confuses me. But correct re Flash. It will be an IDE for HTML5 development or die. Within several years with a combo of increased processor specs and browser optimisations, the Canvas control will be the new VGA mode. With casual games being the biggest growth market, ignore this at your peril.
Re:Next step: Apple bans HTML Canvas (Score:2, Interesting)
This is a serious question: Why does Apple appear to be OK with HTML5, but not with Flash? There are lots of posts claiming Apple is "afraid" of Flash, because the app store is their cash cow and Flash is a threat to that.
Now, I realize there is a lot more Flash content than HTML5 content, but isn't the basic principle the same? Couldn't I go make just about any game in HTML5 right now and have it work on the iPhone and iPad?
Is it because the source for any HTML5 game is viewable that Apple think "serious" game developers will avoid it?
Or another reason I'm missing?
Re:Next step: Apple bans HTML Canvas (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Next step: Apple bans HTML Canvas (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Next step: Apple bans HTML Canvas (Score:1, Interesting)
Dog slow? Obviously you haven't seen Google's Quake 2 port running in Canvas.
http://code.google.com/p/quake2-gwt-port/
Re:Smart move and good news (Score:2, Interesting)
How the hell do you think this will be less bloated? Instead of a binary plugin installed on your machine that just downloads compressed binary data to render an animation, now you'll need to download the entire runtime script, as plain text, plus additional js to run the same animation. If anything, this will INCREASE the download times significantly.
Re:Next step: Apple bans HTML Canvas (Score:3, Interesting)
Admittedly this is far from Quake 2, but it's still an HTML5 game for the iPhone:
http://purplefloyd.wordpress.com/2010/02/04/html5-platform-game-for-iphone/ [wordpress.com]
With proper optimization, don't you think most 2D games could run pretty well in HTML5?
Re:Next step: Apple bans HTML Canvas (Score:2, Interesting)
You can already get Flash on your iPhone. Remote Desktop to any OS capable of running flash, and there you go. As long as you're within you're own personal network lag should be almost non-existent.
Re:Next step: Apple bans HTML Canvas (Score:4, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Next step: Apple bans HTML Canvas (Score:5, Interesting)
Further, I suspect that Apple doesn't really need Flash-level performance out of HTML5. By virtue of their market share(and their customers' willingness to buy widgets), the "If you want performance, make an App and shut yer trap." argument has worked pretty well for them. I suspect that their intentions for HTML5 basically boil down to "Achieve broad enough adoption for video purposes that, for any random video website our customers go to, they'll get a lump of h.246 for our hardware decoder and a couple of vector widgets, rather than a 'you don't have flash, so sad' embed box." and "Achieve performance decent enough that, if web designers and their idiot customers simply have to have their fancy flash-based menu effects, they can implement them in HTML5 and not break the experience for iPod users."(and, presumably, in the not so distant future, Mac users).
Long term, there isn't any particular reason why HTML5, which offers vector objects and bitmap canvases with javascript control, should be markedly slower than Flash, which offers vector objects and bitmap canvases with Actionscript control. In the short term, I suspect that Apple just doesn't care all that much.
Re:Smart move and good news (Score:3, Interesting)
Far from laughable - it's already happening: http://www.canvasdemos.com/type/games/ [canvasdemos.com]