How is the modern JS control of DOM elements styled with CSS not the same as ActionScript and Flash sprites. I'd argue that Flash was not a video format. It could play videos encoded in specific codecs, but that's not the same as being a video format. At the end you could wrap MP4 encoded video as an FLV, but that was just a wrapper not a format.
At this point, the only think I see being Flash was the app with its timeline to make the animations visually instead of just with code. I've seen plenty of Show HNs of various apps attempting he animation UI similar to Flash, so I know they are out there. I just have no need for that type of work, so I don't spend too much time with them.
> How is the modern JS control of DOM elements styled with CSS not the same as ActionScript and Flash sprites.
Because DOM is not sprites. Because everything in DOM is laid out with relation to each other, and as you as much as look at it funny, it will cause a full re-paint and re-flow of the entire page. Because animations are bolted on to CSS/DOM after the fact, and the vast majority them are insanely resource-intensive
if you're trying to emulate a Flash element, why would you use CSS relative positioning and not define the position:absolute, at least for the element being used as the stage. That would turn any of the child elements much more sprite-like