HTML 5 and the future of Flash Devs
Is HTML 5 going to change the future for Flash developers? The answer is “yes”, but the change will be in a positive way.
I think that Flash will continue to flourish and ground-breaking content will continue to be delivered on the Flash Platform in the coming years. That being said, these new standards-based technologies are going to provide some interesting possibilities for Flash Developers to cross over to the standards world in the future.
When you boil it down, Adobe based ActionScript 3 on ECMAScript, the same specifications that JavaScript 1 and JavaScript 2 are based on (more or less). Flash Developers can easily leverage their ActionScript 3 skills via JavaScript. Any good developer can grapple the basics of DOM just as easily. So the missing links and HTML and CSS.
For developers like me, who have a standards background, this possibility is exciting. I look forward to the adoption of W3C Standards across all browser. I’ve never believed that one platform should be used over another because of obligation. If I was a carpenter i wouldn’t use a hammer to do a screwdriver’s job just becuase I paid more for the hammer. Which brings us to “free”.
These standards technologies are all free to get started with and require no browser plugins for users, on top of their SEO and accessibility benefits. A lot of Flash developers seem to be apprehensive of this movement when, to me, it makes sense to accept it with open arms. It affords us new opportunities in a different realm and the ability to leverage skills we already posses.
The proposed specs for HTML 5, CSS 3, and JavaScript 2 are far from universally implemented, in addition to not being backwards-compatible. It could easily be five years before these specs become widely accepted and used by major brands.
So, stay calm people and don’t be scared of progress. Remember that the entire reason flash was created was to accomplish what you couldn’t do with standards. Now we’ve finally got our gift horse, and we are already looking it in the mouth.