a very nice showcase of how redundant and useless Flash is, and will be, once HTML5 goes "live". i for one am just eagerly awaiting Flash's total death.
I'm not sure if your familiar with Flash deployment services like Mochi Media but one of the biggest features they give Flash developers is their encryption which is not currently broken. What this means is that the Flash games you develop cannot be decompiled. Even the regular Flash apps you see out there have just a slight barrier to entry to decompile and come out the other end with working code. This kind of safety is comforting to developers. HTML will never have even a little of that saftey.
Oh I'm all for HTML5, on the other hand I'm still having to support IE6 for my work and even then IE7 and IE8, it will be many years before I can fully move to HTML5 and by then I'm sure I'll use whatever tool is best for the job of making web applications for use across browsers and platforms.
I don't see why we won't see Flash and HTML5 and Silverlight and Java applets for games still going forward. It isn't a either or situation as I'll still be able to contain Flash/Silverlight/Java inside a HTML5 compliant page.
You should take a look at the minified/obfuscated source that Google's Closure produces. It really isn't much better than looking at a disassembly of a C# binary, as far as clarity goes. And all that in the name of minifying the source, not obfuscation.
In this episode of the online show "Hak5" they demonstrated some home-brew multi-touch interfaces and they used those to interact with demos built in Flash : http://www.hak5.org/episodes/episode-624
The video of the product looks great, so I go to edit one of the examples and choose "Import to Vector Editor" and then a window loads asking me to install Adobe Flash 10 and I think to myself, why on earth would anyone create an Adobe Creative Suite killer written in Adobe Flash?
I see that you added the IEcanvas code to the source, but it looks like you might need to do some more IE testing. I see 3 javascript errors followed by a black screen in IE8.
Ok, probably spent too much time there than was necessary. "We" (whoever was there) ended up with a few faces which evolved into pimps which evolved into splodges which evolved into me trying to make the whole thing yellow.
A question for you guys: What is the best way to learn about and start playing around with HTML 5. And how long would it take to produce something like this?
It won't be long before all applications are written in HTML/CSS/JS. This is beautifully done and should definitely convert more open standard web stack doubters.
This is amazing. I'm building a little canvas drawing tool myself (http://kritzl.robsite.net -> 'Mal was') and this is great inspiration. Very slick interface and really fast, impressive.
Although the fill tool seems to have a very high tolerance. Fills the whole screen everytime. You could also add line smoothing for the drawing tools. There are reasonably fast algorithms you can use with bezierCurveTo (http://robsite.net/posts/smooth-path-in-canvas).
I think image manipulation applications demonstrate the graphic capabilities of the platform better than anything else. And allegorical language aside, I think web applications are not a reinvention of old solutions, but a reframing of old problems. Hint: the web will kill Adobe's Version Cue faster than it can kill Photoshop. Collaboration is the holly grail.
I have a PC/Mac/Linux I want cross portability I use trolltech and C++ or something similar. What's wrong with installation? Installation gives me access to a nice operating system with a rich set of API's, threads, memory, file system. I fit's something I want to use I install it. Installation can cause problems with older software that isn't internet aware and can't automatically update itself. That is no longer an issue.
These thing's are cute toys, but really. Let's say I want to make something that can manipulate a raw image (around 100MB) for printing, would I use a browser - well the answer is pretty obvious.
So what is this browser stuff for??? It's cute and fun I agree. But it's not really practical as an image manipulation program. It's a cute distraction for hobbyists. If you want to do real work then fire up your compiler.
Using the browser and trying to get html to do something which is easy to do with a compiler is a distraction. The internet is the powerful thing, forget about the browser and html 5, but use the internet and web standards to enable your software to use web based data stores for collabaration and publishing then you're onto a winner.
...oh and this doesn't run on 99% of machines either :-)
I abandoned pure standards-respecting HTML5/canvas while working on a similar tool (for pixel art, not general drawing), for reasons which will readily become apparent when you try to save a file... then load one.
Flash is still quite useful because desktoppy apps have legitimate needs which are thwarted by the browser's rather uptight security model, but are mostly satisfiable with Flash's controlled way of enabling them.
I have absolutely no artistic ability or desire to buy an iPad -- but put that on it and I might. Its like being a little kid again and discovering fingerpaint.
There is a veritable flood of tutorials nowadays that you can download or buy on DVD that can teach you how to draw or paint, even sculpt. And the materials needed for drawing are pretty minimal. Time + practice. :)
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how many people use Flash to play casual web games? Hundreds of millions.
I think your conclusion is misdrawn.
I see how it's an advantage, but I think if that's the full extent of why flash will win long-term for minigames, you haven't swayed me very far.
I don't see why we won't see Flash and HTML5 and Silverlight and Java applets for games still going forward. It isn't a either or situation as I'll still be able to contain Flash/Silverlight/Java inside a HTML5 compliant page.
I went back to the site and had another look.
Poor Adobe.
I see that you added the IEcanvas code to the source, but it looks like you might need to do some more IE testing. I see 3 javascript errors followed by a black screen in IE8.
selection tool defaults to 7 sided poly, which is not intuitive, and seems to move against the user's intention a bit.
Its distinct feature is the real-time display of other people drawing on the same page. You might want to check it out if you like this.
Though, if you want to draw on your own or with just people you know, you can create a new picture and share the URL with just the people you want.
Only thing I could suggest improving is letting the pad take up more of my screen size.
Are you planning on opensourcing the project?
I could write a more technical blog post at some point how it's done, if more people should be interested in that.
Thanks for the link!
Edit: It actually got somewhere: http://imgur.com/M8elJ.png
Otherwise, this "cheat sheet" helped me the most: http://blog.nihilogic.dk/2009/02/html5-canvas-cheat-sheet.ht...
The tools just aren't there yet, I'd rather develop in plain js+canvas for now (for which you can get decent editors, debuggers, profilers, etc.)
Although the fill tool seems to have a very high tolerance. Fills the whole screen everytime. You could also add line smoothing for the drawing tools. There are reasonably fast algorithms you can use with bezierCurveTo (http://robsite.net/posts/smooth-path-in-canvas).
I see things like this and wonder what on earth web guys are wasting there time on.
Yeah, web guys are wasting their time on portability, trivial distribution, standards compliance, and keeping full control over their applications.
even though it doesn't need to go to any destinations off that highway,
and when it was already rolling faster on client-side boulevard
These thing's are cute toys, but really. Let's say I want to make something that can manipulate a raw image (around 100MB) for printing, would I use a browser - well the answer is pretty obvious.
So what is this browser stuff for??? It's cute and fun I agree. But it's not really practical as an image manipulation program. It's a cute distraction for hobbyists. If you want to do real work then fire up your compiler.
Using the browser and trying to get html to do something which is easy to do with a compiler is a distraction. The internet is the powerful thing, forget about the browser and html 5, but use the internet and web standards to enable your software to use web based data stores for collabaration and publishing then you're onto a winner.
...oh and this doesn't run on 99% of machines either :-)
XO1: running Ubuntu/XFCE/Chromium/MugTug's sketchpad. Painting with XO1 is way fast. No screen drag. None.
XO2: running the native Sugar paint app. Roughly the same feature set. Screen drag.
Edit: would be nice to have pressure sensitivity for my tablet and ability to edit SVG nodes.
And a pressure sensitive extension would require some sort of modification of the available web tools, afaik.
They are fundamental complaints about canvas thus far generally, although I note colorillo.com can at least save in SVG.
Flash is still quite useful because desktoppy apps have legitimate needs which are thwarted by the browser's rather uptight security model, but are mostly satisfiable with Flash's controlled way of enabling them.