7 ms·

The Most Important Parts of HTML5

39 points by falava 14y ago

TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
Shameless plug, for more info on WebSocket, here's a brief intro: http://websocket.us/ http://websocket.us/
rizla 14y ago
Is there a no noise version of this. Trying to read it on mobile device is near impossible (hangover and screaming kid - unrelated - not helping)
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- kasbah 14y ago
  Try Readability: http://www.readability.com/articles/3y6tgqfb http://www.readability.com/articles/3y6tgqfb
  - rizla 14y ago
    Cheers
- chucknelson 14y ago
  Oh wow, that background is painful. Just use a mobilizer link - here is the instapaper version: http://www.instapaper.com/text?u=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.n01se.net%2Fblog-n01se-net-p-375.html http://www.instapaper.com/text?u=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.n01se.net...
uptown 14y ago
1. Faster Javascript Engines 2. WebSockets 3. Binary Data Types (Typed Arrays and Blobs) 4. Web Audio API 5. Canvas 2D Context 6. CSS3 and WOFF 7. Local Storage, Offline Applications and the File APIs 8. Web Workers 9. SVG 1.1/2.0 10. WebGL 11. All the Rest
- drhowarddrfine 14y ago
  Javascript, websockets, css3 and woff, webgl and others are not part of html5.
- kevingadd 14y ago
  A second-system replacement for the <audio> tag is more important than being able to render graphics or store data locally? Questionable ranking. Decent summary of important stuff in/related to HTML5, though.
  - masklinn 14y ago
    > A second-system replacement for the <audio> tag I don't believe it's intended as a replacement for the <audio> tag. The audio tag exists to embed (pre-existing) recordings and their metadata (e.g. transcripts). The purpose of the audio API is generated sounds (music sequencer & the like) and low-latency sounds (for video games). While you could probably re-implement <audio> on top of the web audio API, that's not very useful.
Liongadev 14y ago
So lets compare the most important features that HTML5 might bring to what flash offers: 1. Faster Javascript Engines AS3 in Flash Player 9 (2006) has about the same speed Javascript has now. There are about as many benchmarks showing AS3 beeing faster, then there are the ones showing Javascript beeing faster. Speed seems to be about the same 2. WebSockets Has been in Flash since 2006 3. Binary Data Types (Typed Arrays and Blobs) Has been in Flash since 2006 4. Web Audio API Has been in Flash way longer 5. Canvas 2D Context Has been in Flash since like forever ago 6. CSS3 and WOFF Nothing really specific but Flash has most all of that since years 7. Local Storage, Offline Applications and the File APIs Since 2006/2008 8. Web Workers Will come with Flash 11.4 soon. 9. SVG 1.1/2.0 Vectors are at the core of Flash 10. WebGL Stage3D is in Flash since 2011 So just stop hatin Flash and love the browser independent possibilities.
- erichocean 14y ago
  11. A multi-vendor international standard. In Flash since...never. 12. Runs great on iOS and Android. In Flash since...never.
  - _delirium 14y ago
    #11 could've turned out differently I think, but Adobe dragged their feet too long. They dropped any licensing restrictions on third-party implementations in 2009 along with releasing full specs for the format. After that happened, even woefully underfunded/understaffed projects like GNU Gnash actually made pretty good progress on implementing it. If they had dropped the restrictions earlier and someone with more funding than Gnash (like Apple) had wanted to build a third-party implementation of the spec directly in the browser (rather than as a plugin), I think it would've been possible. On the other hand, it's possible HTML5 is better thought out technically. I don't have a strong opinion on that. I do think the Adobe approach of "rich internet applications", which was once shunned by the HTML/hypertext community, is winning after all, just not in Adobe's format.
  - azakai 14y ago
    Flash also dropped Linux. Together with Mobile, that makes 2 of my favorite platforms it doesn't support, making it useless.
level09 14y ago
change the background ..
stesch 14y ago
Apropos WebGL: Why are web browsers so picky regarding WebGL? There are PCs out there which are perfectly fine running applications like Blender (uses OpenGL for the GUI and everything) but Firefox won't let you use WebGL on it.
- Joeri 14y ago
  The dominant factor is not the graphics hardware but the graphics driver. If it has security, stability or conformance issues, it gets blacklisted. http://www.khronos.org/webgl/wiki/BlacklistsAndWhitelists http://www.khronos.org/webgl/wiki/BlacklistsAndWhitelists
- evmar 14y ago
  Blender is trying its best to work with you; crashes are seen as rare bugs that Blender needs to work around. Arbitrary web pages can run arbitrary GL commands and if they can cause your GPU drivers to crash (e.g. lock your whole system) than any link you click has the potential of ruining your day. Unfortunately, nobody's yet figured out how to let a browser only run the pages that don't make it crash.
- azakai 14y ago
  Web browsers have a much higher standard of quality here. It's ok if a local app like Blender uses an OpenGL driver that has security exploits - it's a local app and almost always running trusted content. It's also not so bad if Blender crashes rarely due to a buggy GL driver or has rendering glitches because of it. In a web browser though, you need to be sure of security - you are running arbitrary content from the web - as well as stability and consistency. So WebGL-powered browsers blacklist drivers known to be problematic. You can override the blacklists if you dare, but it is very dangerous.
  - stesch 14y ago
    This makes WebGL in itself very dangerous, because you have to rely on blacklists/whitelists instead of real security measures.
kevincennis 14y ago
I'm always really surprised when I read posts like these and they don't mention Web Components/Shadow DOM. The ability to encapsulate markup, style, and behavior into a single unit with a clean API is an enormous improvement. Of all the new HTML5 features, I think Web Components have the highest potential to relieve a huge pain point for developers. Image an online repository with all kinds of widgets -- range sliders, date-pickers, sortable lists, etc. But instead of a collections of inconsistent jQuery plugins with CSS dependencies, you get a single, self-contained module that can be interacted with as if it were a native DOM node.
- nkron 14y ago
  Web Components sounds great but doesn't seem to be supported anywhere. Once people can use them, they will start making lists like this.
- masklinn 14y ago
  > But instead of a collections of inconsistent jQuery plugins with CSS dependencies You get a collection of inconsistent web components? > you get a single, self-contained module that can be interacted with as if it were a native DOM node. Right, because the one thing I always think when I'm using third-party code is "I'd like this thing to be way more opaque, I'd like to have way less control over it, and I definitely don't want to be able to introspect it."
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]

39 points by falava 14y ago

Shameless plug, for more info on WebSocket, here's a brief intro: http://websocket.us/ http://websocket.us/

rizla 14y ago

Is there a no noise version of this. Trying to read it on mobile device is near impossible (hangover and screaming kid - unrelated - not helping)

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
kasbah 14y ago
Try Readability: http://www.readability.com/articles/3y6tgqfb http://www.readability.com/articles/3y6tgqfb
- rizla 14y ago
  Cheers
chucknelson 14y ago
Oh wow, that background is painful. Just use a mobilizer link - here is the instapaper version: http://www.instapaper.com/text?u=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.n01se.net%2Fblog-n01se-net-p-375.html http://www.instapaper.com/text?u=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.n01se.net...

uptown 14y ago

1. Faster Javascript Engines 2. WebSockets 3. Binary Data Types (Typed Arrays and Blobs) 4. Web Audio API 5. Canvas 2D Context 6. CSS3 and WOFF 7. Local Storage, Offline Applications and the File APIs 8. Web Workers 9. SVG 1.1/2.0 10. WebGL 11. All the Rest

drhowarddrfine 14y ago
Javascript, websockets, css3 and woff, webgl and others are not part of html5.
kevingadd 14y ago
A second-system replacement for the <audio> tag is more important than being able to render graphics or store data locally? Questionable ranking. Decent summary of important stuff in/related to HTML5, though.
- masklinn 14y ago
  > A second-system replacement for the <audio> tag I don't believe it's intended as a replacement for the <audio> tag. The audio tag exists to embed (pre-existing) recordings and their metadata (e.g. transcripts). The purpose of the audio API is generated sounds (music sequencer & the like) and low-latency sounds (for video games). While you could probably re-implement <audio> on top of the web audio API, that's not very useful.

Liongadev 14y ago

So lets compare the most important features that HTML5 might bring to what flash offers: 1. Faster Javascript Engines AS3 in Flash Player 9 (2006) has about the same speed Javascript has now. There are about as many benchmarks showing AS3 beeing faster, then there are the ones showing Javascript beeing faster. Speed seems to be about the same 2. WebSockets Has been in Flash since 2006 3. Binary Data Types (Typed Arrays and Blobs) Has been in Flash since 2006 4. Web Audio API Has been in Flash way longer 5. Canvas 2D Context Has been in Flash since like forever ago 6. CSS3 and WOFF Nothing really specific but Flash has most all of that since years 7. Local Storage, Offline Applications and the File APIs Since 2006/2008 8. Web Workers Will come with Flash 11.4 soon. 9. SVG 1.1/2.0 Vectors are at the core of Flash 10. WebGL Stage3D is in Flash since 2011 So just stop hatin Flash and love the browser independent possibilities.

erichocean 14y ago
11. A multi-vendor international standard. In Flash since...never. 12. Runs great on iOS and Android. In Flash since...never.
- _delirium 14y ago
  #11 could've turned out differently I think, but Adobe dragged their feet too long. They dropped any licensing restrictions on third-party implementations in 2009 along with releasing full specs for the format. After that happened, even woefully underfunded/understaffed projects like GNU Gnash actually made pretty good progress on implementing it. If they had dropped the restrictions earlier and someone with more funding than Gnash (like Apple) had wanted to build a third-party implementation of the spec directly in the browser (rather than as a plugin), I think it would've been possible. On the other hand, it's possible HTML5 is better thought out technically. I don't have a strong opinion on that. I do think the Adobe approach of "rich internet applications", which was once shunned by the HTML/hypertext community, is winning after all, just not in Adobe's format.
- azakai 14y ago
  Flash also dropped Linux. Together with Mobile, that makes 2 of my favorite platforms it doesn't support, making it useless.

level09 14y ago

change the background ..

stesch 14y ago

Apropos WebGL: Why are web browsers so picky regarding WebGL? There are PCs out there which are perfectly fine running applications like Blender (uses OpenGL for the GUI and everything) but Firefox won't let you use WebGL on it.

Joeri 14y ago
The dominant factor is not the graphics hardware but the graphics driver. If it has security, stability or conformance issues, it gets blacklisted. http://www.khronos.org/webgl/wiki/BlacklistsAndWhitelists http://www.khronos.org/webgl/wiki/BlacklistsAndWhitelists
evmar 14y ago
Blender is trying its best to work with you; crashes are seen as rare bugs that Blender needs to work around. Arbitrary web pages can run arbitrary GL commands and if they can cause your GPU drivers to crash (e.g. lock your whole system) than any link you click has the potential of ruining your day. Unfortunately, nobody's yet figured out how to let a browser only run the pages that don't make it crash.
azakai 14y ago
Web browsers have a much higher standard of quality here. It's ok if a local app like Blender uses an OpenGL driver that has security exploits - it's a local app and almost always running trusted content. It's also not so bad if Blender crashes rarely due to a buggy GL driver or has rendering glitches because of it. In a web browser though, you need to be sure of security - you are running arbitrary content from the web - as well as stability and consistency. So WebGL-powered browsers blacklist drivers known to be problematic. You can override the blacklists if you dare, but it is very dangerous.
- stesch 14y ago
  This makes WebGL in itself very dangerous, because you have to rely on blacklists/whitelists instead of real security measures.

kevincennis 14y ago

I'm always really surprised when I read posts like these and they don't mention Web Components/Shadow DOM. The ability to encapsulate markup, style, and behavior into a single unit with a clean API is an enormous improvement. Of all the new HTML5 features, I think Web Components have the highest potential to relieve a huge pain point for developers. Image an online repository with all kinds of widgets -- range sliders, date-pickers, sortable lists, etc. But instead of a collections of inconsistent jQuery plugins with CSS dependencies, you get a single, self-contained module that can be interacted with as if it were a native DOM node.

nkron 14y ago
Web Components sounds great but doesn't seem to be supported anywhere. Once people can use them, they will start making lists like this.
masklinn 14y ago
> But instead of a collections of inconsistent jQuery plugins with CSS dependencies You get a collection of inconsistent web components? > you get a single, self-contained module that can be interacted with as if it were a native DOM node. Right, because the one thing I always think when I'm using third-party code is "I'd like this thing to be way more opaque, I'd like to have way less control over it, and I definitely don't want to be able to introspect it."
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]