5 reasons why Java developers must pay attention to HTML5

In the past, Java developers relied on web browsers as the front-end of their applications. But the process is often frustrating: HTML is clunky, JavaScript is slow and difficult to use, debugging tools are lacking, and making your application compatible with all browsers is a painstaking process. But now comes your good news. With the improvement of browser technology, especially after the adoption of HTML5, the above problems have been significantly improved. Let’s take a look at the 5 benefits that HTML5 can bring to Java developers.

　1. Cross-platform deployment

Like Java, one of the core advantages of HTML5 is cross-platform operation. It supports both traditional desktop platforms and mobile platforms, including iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, Symbian, etc. This cross-platform feature means that you can share a UI code base for all platforms, saving several times development time.

HTML5 achieves cross-platform by standardizing a series of APIs for common web applications, including the development of offline applications, browser data storage and plug-in-free audio and video APIs.

　2. User interface controls

HTML5 adds many new controls to web development. Page creation includes:

,

,

,

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, etc., as well as a series of new form controls. For example, the element can collect 13 types of data from the user: color, date, datetime, datetime-local, email, month, number, range, search, tel, time, url and week, etc. This element also plays a very important role on the mobile side.

In addition to more native controls, the recent surge in front-end development has also improved JavaScript controls. For example, UI libraries jQuery UI and Telerik's Kendo UI already support the seamless addition of complex and customizable UI controls, such as menus, labels, and more.

　3. Speed

The development of HTML5 has also driven the development of JavaScript. In order to win market share, browser manufacturers are working hard to accelerate their rendering and JavaScript engines.

　It’s not just JavaScript that’s improved, CSS3 is also advancing with the times. CSS3 introduces some very powerful APIs such as animations, transitions and transformations. Because these animations are native, the browser can take advantage of hardware acceleration and run these animations directly on the user's GPU. This ensures that the animation can run smoothly on mobile devices.

　4. Canvas

　HTML5's element uses JavaScript to draw images on the web page. has many ways to draw paths, rectangles, circles, characters, and add images. The emergence of this technology is revolutionary for the game development industry.

Of course, if you are not a game developer, you can still use . Due to its strong cross-platform support, has many add-on applications. Canvas removes the barriers for developers to create rich visual visualizations, making borrowing third-party tools like Flash a thing of the past.

　5. Cross-browser compatibility

In the past, it was very painful for Java developers to write code in one running environment and then test the code in different browsers. Fortunately, HTML5 has standardized all the hurdles of cross-browser development.

In addition, competition in the browser market has also promoted the continuous innovation of debugging tools. Whether you're using IE, Firefox, Chrome, or Safari, you can now quickly query the DOM, traverse JavaScript, and delve deeper into the network stack.

　Conclusion

　Although there are still many problems to be solved in HTML5, we have to admit that HTML5 has solved most of the pain points in Java development and made the development process more and more seamless.