The World Wide Web nowadays is sprinkled with so many rich applications and to be frank they are a bitch to make. Here is a comparison between the two technologies Adobe Flex and HTML5 which expedite the process of Web Development.
1) Basic Feature Overview
HTML5 is the latest version of HTML that ahs backward compatibility with the previous version of HTML and the work on the HTML5 specs is in progress as several parts of it are slowly being implemented by the various Web Browsers. It is said that it is impossible for the whole spec to be completed officially even after a decade. Adobe Flex is nothing but Flash for all the application designers as it is combines the use of User Interface Widgets along with the power of Flash . If you want to develop downloadable desktop application in that case you can make use of Adobe Flex with AIR framework.
2) Openness
WHATWG group is putting its efforts to work on the open HTML5 Spec but most of the Web Browser Runtimes are closed however Adobe Flex has open sourced the Flex SDK Compiler yet not the Flash Player Runtime.
3) Widgets
Adobe Flex boasts of providing so many User Interface Widgets such as Navigators, Menus, Lists, Containers and lots more whereas when coming to HTML 5 there are neither nay presentational tags nor any UI Widgets all that is there is the Menu and the Data grid for which the implementations are not yet specified. Thus it is not possible to make an assumption on how they will look like.
4) Forms
Adobe Flex has wide range of Nifty Controls and HTML 5 has various new input types and thus both the technologies provide a novel of validating the user input devoid of the designers having to put much effort’s o now with these technologies it is easy to check for the validity of an Email Address without having to write a huge Regular Expression. In HTML5 you can style invalid form fields with the use of pseudo classes 7 query a Boolean to find out if the form is valid or not.
5) Three Dimensional Graphics
3D graphics imply creation of lightning or cameras, applying 3D transformations and creating scenes. As per the HTML5 Specs there could be a possibility for 3D Context with the use of Canvas Object and there are some web browsers which are in the process of experimenting the same as to what it will look like. Flex has recently offered native three dimensional support in Player 10 but there are a few open 3D projects which just simulate fine as expected.
6) Vector Graphics
Vector Graphics imply creation of various shapes and lines in diverse styles. Adobe is Flex is just mind blowing at these implementations because its focus has at all times been on graphics. However in case of HTMl5 there were several incompatible specs such as VML and SVG which finally paved way for faster Vector Graphics through Canvas object.
7) Video
When it is about videos the obvious choice by most of them is Adobe Flex and a biggest example of this is YouTube. Embedding Videos on the World Wide Web is easy with Adobe Flex as it provides wide range of controls whereas in case of HTML5 native web browser support is introduced in HTML with the help of the Video Tag that is expected to support OGG video format.
8) Bitmap Modifications
The moment you are done with adding graphics you would definitely want to modify them and it is the Adobe Flex which will allow you to modify each pixel and lets you add various transformations, effects and filters whereas with the canvas element of HTML5 raw pixel access which makes it difficult to manipulate.
9) History
In every application there are basically two types of History that are expected by any user one is the navigation history just as the back button of the web browser and this is supported by both HTML5 and Flex and the other is the Undo history just like in any drawing application that is supported only by HTML5.
10) Development
It is at all times easy to develop applications in an Integrated Device Environment (IDE) . In case of Flex there is the Flex Builder that is based on the Eclipse Platform and is going to cost you just some dollars when coming to HTML5 there are so many options of which the most popular is the Dreamweaver.
Winner ???
If you are making a decision on which language to make use of for writing your Web Application the biggest advantage of Adobe Flex is that it actually exists but HTMl5 is just a spec and you can expect for its gradual adoption in the coming decade. Thus choice is yours….whether you would like to opt for a long term solution or a quick fix.