4 ms·

My thoughts exactly. HTML5 is going to be (or is already) everywhere, so where's the big risk?

potatolicious 16y ago
Performance maybe - but it's hard to imagine any HTML5 implementation to be slower than Flash is. Also, HTML5 isn't arriving on IE for some time yet, and even then it may take years for the general public to update to something that can render HTML5 properly. I wouldn't use any of the more complex/less-supported features of HTML5 on any live site today, that's for sure.
- watmough 16y ago
  Really? I always thought that Flash was quite performant compared to browser-based Javascript. Can you point to any benchmarks?
  - MartinCron 16y ago
    Flash performance varies widely. Flash on Mac OSX is generally regarded as terrible, while Flash on Windows isn't as bad.
    - earl 16y ago
      If by generally regarded, you mean literally blows chunks... ffs, VLC is open source and it performs better on my macbook pro. Adobe is too incompetent even to copy freely available code.
      - deleted 16y ago
        [deleted]
      - andybak 16y ago
        Adobe can't fix Flash (the plugin) on OSX by copying code from VLC. As far as I understand it, the problem is the rendering pipeline provided by the OS and browser.
      - camwest 16y ago
        Clearly video and PDF display are two different animals. Saying that performance blows on video and then using VLC as a comparison for JavaScript vs ActionScript performance is completely besides the point.
      - MartinCron 16y ago
        Yeah, sure, "blows chunks" is a perfectly fair assessment. I was just trying to be somewhat diplomatic. I work with a hardcore Mac zealot and it's a running joke in the office that he will complain about Flash performance every single day.
matthiaskramm 16y ago
Investment risk. Scribd is a small company, and putting a whole battalion of developers on a PDF to HTML5 conversion for half a year without even knowing whether that'll turn out to be possible (as in, good enough for 10,000,000 documents) is a scary move. That being said, check out our upcoming engineering blog for technical details about how we convert to HTML5 now!
- axod 16y ago
  "putting a whole battalion of developers on a PDF to HTML5 conversion for half a year without even knowing whether that'll turn out to be possible" The Google pdf viewer seems good enough to me. It'll be interesting to see what you can improve on that.
  - matthiaskramm 16y ago
    stay tuned.
  - bobbyi 16y ago
    Actual pdf readers like Preview seem good enough to me. I don't understand why I would need to take a PDF and view it as HTML. I do see the value for formats like .pptx where I may not have a reader, but PDF is already a "lowest common denominator" like HTML.
    - sesqu 16y ago
      I've occasionally been thankful for Google's PDF conversion. PDF isn't a lowest common denominator - there are computers without that capability (kiosks and terminals, for example). What's more, PDF viewers can be pretty heavy, especially for fancy documents, and their browser integration tends to suck even when it exists. Sure, I like reading my PDFs with evince, but sometimes HTML is just preferrable.
      - deleted 16y ago
        [deleted]
    - 16y ago

Performance maybe - but it's hard to imagine any HTML5 implementation to be slower than Flash is. Also, HTML5 isn't arriving on IE for some time yet, and even then it may take years for the general public to update to something that can render HTML5 properly. I wouldn't use any of the more complex/less-supported features of HTML5 on any live site today, that's for sure.

watmough 16y ago
Really? I always thought that Flash was quite performant compared to browser-based Javascript. Can you point to any benchmarks?
- MartinCron 16y ago
  Flash performance varies widely. Flash on Mac OSX is generally regarded as terrible, while Flash on Windows isn't as bad.
  - earl 16y ago
    If by generally regarded, you mean literally blows chunks... ffs, VLC is open source and it performs better on my macbook pro. Adobe is too incompetent even to copy freely available code.
    - deleted 16y ago
      [deleted]
    - andybak 16y ago
      Adobe can't fix Flash (the plugin) on OSX by copying code from VLC. As far as I understand it, the problem is the rendering pipeline provided by the OS and browser.
    - camwest 16y ago
      Clearly video and PDF display are two different animals. Saying that performance blows on video and then using VLC as a comparison for JavaScript vs ActionScript performance is completely besides the point.
    - MartinCron 16y ago
      Yeah, sure, "blows chunks" is a perfectly fair assessment. I was just trying to be somewhat diplomatic. I work with a hardcore Mac zealot and it's a running joke in the office that he will complain about Flash performance every single day.

matthiaskramm 16y ago

Investment risk. Scribd is a small company, and putting a whole battalion of developers on a PDF to HTML5 conversion for half a year without even knowing whether that'll turn out to be possible (as in, good enough for 10,000,000 documents) is a scary move. That being said, check out our upcoming engineering blog for technical details about how we convert to HTML5 now!

axod 16y ago
"putting a whole battalion of developers on a PDF to HTML5 conversion for half a year without even knowing whether that'll turn out to be possible" The Google pdf viewer seems good enough to me. It'll be interesting to see what you can improve on that.
- matthiaskramm 16y ago
  stay tuned.
- bobbyi 16y ago
  Actual pdf readers like Preview seem good enough to me. I don't understand why I would need to take a PDF and view it as HTML. I do see the value for formats like .pptx where I may not have a reader, but PDF is already a "lowest common denominator" like HTML.
  - sesqu 16y ago
    I've occasionally been thankful for Google's PDF conversion. PDF isn't a lowest common denominator - there are computers without that capability (kiosks and terminals, for example). What's more, PDF viewers can be pretty heavy, especially for fancy documents, and their browser integration tends to suck even when it exists. Sure, I like reading my PDFs with evince, but sometimes HTML is just preferrable.
    - deleted 16y ago
      [deleted]
  - 16y ago