The Html5 and Java Dance

The idea that you will ever be able to build something like a simple app and it will work perfectly on all devices is no truer than if I told you I dated Steve Wozniak’s daughter in high school. He may not even have a daughter, but I know he has three kids. I still here that people are coding Java and HTML5 hybrid apps and expecting them to instantly port to all browsers, but that’s simply not feasible. If it were that simple, we’d all be dropping C and knocking out the next Angry Birds from a poolside in Barbados.

Bring back Java Games

When Java games first hit our phones, text messages were worrying about their shelf-life because of MMS and touch screen (or at least useable touchscreen) was a distant concept. Then, coding java for phones meant you could pretty much code for most phones. Now, you need to think about much more because the market is so fragmented and it’s getting worse. Windows is challenging Android for a share of the iPhone market Google’s sweet flavoured OS stole so quickly and Blackberry is refusing to sit down with some “new and exciting” plans to win back customers, which probably means Blackberry are thinking about installing Android.

I know they are making their BlackBerry messenger available on the plat form so I would not be surprised if they adopted Android because why waste time and money developing IDKs and APIs when so much great open source exists already? Seems like Windows is the only one with the form and potential to take on Google. Even Macs have Intel chips these days so how long is it before the OSX Lion chokes on a Jelly Bean?

Reverting to Basics

Okay, so calling C a basic is nothing short of sacrilege, as any real coder knows, but being able to code games with a high-level language like HTML5 has to be attractive right? It’s certainly more useable than any game I tweened together in Flash. I’d like to thank whoever is responsible for the end of Flash, even if it was Apple’s determination not to bow to pressure, although it is really annoying having to watch Facebook videos on my Samsung S3 because my iPad laughs in the face of Flash. Yeah, good move Wozniak - Not!

HTML5 to the Rescue

Admittedly, I don’t see any great games coded purely with HTML5 at the moment and it has been around for some time now, but browser technology is improving all the time and how long will it take some bright spark to come up with something that treats hybrid-coded Java and HTML5 games the same on any device you use? I think the answer to that is priceless, but someone is working on that very solution somewhere right now. The trouble is that the OS battle between Apple, Google and Microsoft will effectively be over at that point because everything and every app will have cloud and browser based versions. Ahh the life of a consumer - who would be anything else?

Peter North is a HTML5 coder who works with experts at sc5.io and is often confused because the rest of the coders call him the team clown although he secretly believes they all like him really.

Image courtesy of W3C