
Subpixel animation differences on browsers - bpierre
http://codepen.io/MattyBalaam/full/eaJto
======
jasonkester
This is another example of how web development hasn't changed at all from its
state in 1996. At least, the part where you need specific code paths for every
web browser that you want to support.

It's sad, really. We've had HTML5 sold as the holy grail where you get to
write your code to The Standard and it will work the same everywhere. Except
The Standard is open enough to interpretation that no two browsers implement
the same thing exactly the same way. And little bugs in one browser's
implementation mean you can't rely on individual features, to the point where
_most_ features have to be either crossed off your wishlist or worked around.

It was the same when the DOM and CSS changes came in around the turn of the
century, and all you need do was code to The Standard and everything would
work everywhere. (But then Netscape 6 came out and couldn't even render
netscape.com anymore.)

The saddest part is that this same demo could have been written in Flash (a 15
year old version of it if we wanted), and it would run not only on every major
browser in existence, but also faster and smoother by pretty much any
benchmark you care to name.

Don't get me wrong, I still have my bet squarely on HTML5, and I really really
want the browser vendors to get their shiz together. But as a front-end
developer I've personally been waiting seventeen years for it. And it seems as
far away today as it ever has.

~~~
coldtea
> _This is another example of how web development hasn 't changed at all from
> its state in 1996. At least, the part where you need specific code paths for
> every web browser that you want to support._

Well, it very much changed in the way that these differences are much smaller
that they used to be, and for far less basic stuff.

I've been in 1997 and in 1999 and in 2002. It's not like that time at all.

------
aparadja
Can someone explain what we're supposed to see here? Why is this interesting?
I'm genuinely curious.

~~~
duiker101
I THINK(but I am not sure because I didn't look too much) that what is going
on is that those balls are moving at high speed by small amounts with css and
what wants to be demonstrated is how different browser render floating points
pixel values. I think. I might be wrong.

~~~
basch
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subpixel_rendering](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subpixel_rendering)

------
moron4hire
Firefox apparently has a lot of issues with subpixels. I notice a very serious
lag, about 1 or 2 whole seconds, between the end of a scroll and the text kn
the page finally settling into its proper rendering.

------
bpierre
Some information about rendering issue on Firefox:
[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=739176](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=739176)

------
Achshar
LAtest IE and Chrome seem to be fine. FF (25) seems to be jittery on both. No
Idea why that is though.

~~~
karka91
I'm getting the opposite. Chrome is jittery on both and firefox smoothes out
the sub pixel animation quite nicely. I'm using Ubuntu

