Comparison of HTML5 and Flash: Difference between revisions

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Flash was not an [[open standard]]. It was controlled by one firm, [[Adobe Systems]]. In contrast, HTML5 is controlled mostly by a committee, the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group ([[WHATWG]]).<ref name="thoughtsFlash">{{cite web|last=Jobs|first=Steve|authorlink=Steve Jobs|date=April 29, 2010|title=Thoughts on Flash|url=https://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170615060422/https://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/|archive-date=June 15, 2017|accessdate=March 24, 2022|website=[[Apple Inc.]]}}</ref>

Various people have praised Flash over the years for rendering consistently across platforms. Constructing sites in Flash was a way to prevent [[Fork (software development)|''code forking,'']], whereby different versions of a site are created for different browsers.<ref>{{cite book |author=Ka Wai Cheung and Craig Bryant |title=Flash Application Design Solutions: The Flash Usability Handbook |page= 6 |publisher=Apress |year= 2006 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=49OwlbrMc-oC&q=flash+cross+browser&pg=PA6|isbn=9781590595947 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Rob |last=Huddleston |title=Flash Catalyst CS5 Bible |publisher=Wiley |year= 2010 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=crN1zsYwYAYC&q=flash+cross+browser&pg=PT39|isbn=9780470767948 }}</ref>

Speaking at 'Adobe Max' in 2011, Itai Asseo likewise said that, unlike HTML5, Flash offers a way to develop applications that work across platforms. HTML5, he said, is currently implemented differently (if at all) by different browsers. Although the Flash browser plugin is not supported on the Apple iPhone OS, Flash applications can be exported to Adobe AIR, which runs on that operating system as a native application. In the same talk, Mr. Asseo lamented the return to another browser war (as seen in the late 1990s). If Flash falls out of favor, he said, web developers will either have to develop many different versions of their web sites and native applications to take into account different HTML5 implementations, deny access to browsers that do not support their version of HTML, or dramatically reduce the functionality of their sites in order to deliver content to the least-advanced browser.<ref>{{cite web|author=Itai Asseo|title=The Death of Flash|url=http://tv.adobe.com/watch/max-2011-envision/the-death-of-flash/|access-date=November 19, 2011}}</ref>