why use html/dhtml anymore?

[iostream71]

i was making a fairly large image(400x600) as a background for a site. i noticed that even optimized, it was still going to be 100+k

i then take this same image and make a flash movie out of it, and it's only around 6k

so my question is, why even bother with using html/dhtml to do mouseovers, etc. anymore?

 

[coldfused]

exactly.....

carlsatterwhite@orlandomediasolutions.com

 

[funkymonk]

Flash is a wicked piece of kit yeah but really it all depends on your preferences, current project, target audience etc. etc.

rod@sameplanet.co.uk
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[xutopia]

Iostream,

I am actually doing research on the subject. When I started programming a while back I dove right it to DHTML. There are pros and cons on why use DHTML rather than Flash.

As funky monk has stated it depends a lot on your target audience.

Flash is great for :

- reacting to user input,
- animations,
- games,
- adding sounds to your web experience,
- integrating rich media on your site.

Audience better reached with Flash is usually teens, young adults and individuals.

Other cons :

- Requires a plugin. (Macromedia does state that 98% of all web users have the macromedia flash player, they cannot however back that information and many of those flash players are old version 3 players that are not compatible with todays flash movies).
- usage of Flash still is very youth oriented. Many of the most serious companies do not like using flash as it tends to push off serious businesses.
- too often flash is built with the assumption that someone is ready to wait for a movie to load all its components (sound, images etc..)

Other pros :

- you know that so long as the person has the plugin it will work regardless of browser version.

What DHTML is great for :

- reacting on user input,
- animation (not as good as flash however),
- adding components on a web page (menus, trees, inner frames, table sorting, bubble, etc...)

Audience reached is a more serious, usually older crowd. Palm.com uses flash for its menu as well as many other sites.

Other cons :

- despite cross-browser scripting abilites the programmer often needs to make sure his script works in all types of platform and browsers,
- not all DHTML degrades well as it is left to the programmer to do a good job,
- to get really good DHTML you need one of the most recent version of browsers (ie6, ns6)

Other pros :

- because DHTML is CSS, HTML and JavaScript it is fast to download.
- it expands on existing technologies,
- it does not need a plugin.
- serious companies have a better time accepting DHTML as an web application then Flash.

=======================================================

This said I believe that Flash is a better suited for games, design companies that want to show off and people that want to have audio control on their web site.

dHTML remains a choice for people like me though as it allows to add functionalities without the usage nor the limits set by an IDE.

But as my boss tells me "The best tools are the one you master.". And I don't master Flash yet. Gary

http://www.xutopia.com

Haran

 

[funkymonk]

Excellent post xutopia!

General...

If you know DHTML and Flash then use both. Using Flash doesn't mean you have to build the whole site with it. You can use it to draw peoples attention to certain area's, like links etc. You could even have whole area's of your site that are completely made with Flash, with the bulk of it still using HTML, DHTML etc. And, I think, you can replace any Flash in your page with an image if they don't have the required plug-in. Not 100% sure about that though.

Good luck...

rod@sameplanet.co.uk
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[xutopia]

thank you funkymonk.

Yes you are right if flash is not possible you can replace with other content. Flash tools from Macromedia makes it easy to put a gif image instead of the flash content but that image can be any HTML you wish.

And you are absolutly right about the usage of flash in only certain areas of the page. I find it is best to highlight important information. Usually the macromedia site has excellent usage of flash (Although I dislike the black background too often used with flash animations but that is personal taste). Gary

http://www.xutopia.com

Haran

 

[iostream71]

thanks for the input. the thing is, i can make a simple, dhtml-equivalent page in flash, and it's so much faster and smaller in file size. i'm not talking huge, 500k flash files; maybe 50k at most. the only question is if they have the plugin, and if they don't, it's a simple download

 

[funkymonk]

Yeah, it's a quick and simple download....

rod@sameplanet.co.uk
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[xutopia]

all your input is aprecited. I have a question however for the people that really know actionscript. Can you make a tree like structure in Flash? Any easy way of doing so? Gary

http://www.xutopia.com

Haran

 

[funkymonk]

You may want to start a new post with that one. Try and get Oldnewbies attention.

rod@sameplanet.co.uk
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