Not So Fast On That HTML5 Canvas vs. Flash Demo | Hacker News Reader

Not So Fast On That HTML5 Canvas vs. Flash Demo

daringfireball.net

13 pointstptacek5 comments

The original sources were pretty much apples-to-apples comparisons. They weren't fast, by any means, but the Flash and HTML really both did the same thing: clear the screen, draw the circle, move the circle. No dirty regions, just pure pixel pushing. Very inefficient, but generally equally inefficient.

Now to make HTML look better (er, rather make Flash look worse), Gruber keeps linking to the optimized versions of the HTML app.

I'm no HTML-hater. I love the tech, and have even done HTML canvas-related work-for-hire. (And plenty of Flash stuff for-hire, as well.) But I also love being informed, and Gruber is only giving half the story here.

Will someone optimize that Flash piece already so I don't have to? I don't have a phone to run it on, anyway.

Edit: and I didn't even care for the original article whose headline boldly proclaimed that Flash was faster than HTML on mobile, not qualifying which mobile devices, nor the nature of the test.

From the many articles you see online, you'd think HTML5 was doing circles around Flash. It appears those statements are becoming less and less true, and even if this test isn't a 100% apples to apples comparison it is nice to see Flash performing well on a mobile.

Both of these technologies are in early stages of development (yes, Flash is mature on the desktop). I think in 1-2 years there will be less of a debate for which one is superior and just accept them for the content they provide.

The drawing parts were close, but mobile profiles can greatly be affected by other parts (in this case the original FPS counter was consuming tons of CPU and battery). The optimized versions do a first approximation of what the Flash engine is doing under the hood, but are still fundamentally equivalent to the original drawing code.

Look faster, but still buggy. I've tested it on latest chrome dev and the ball doesn't render well.

I think the point is that both technologies perform equally well/crappy except that one is open and the other isn't. All things being equal, HTML5 wins.

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