
Mozilla drags IE into the future with Canvas element plugin - apu
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080819-mozilla-drags-ie-into-the-future-with-canvas-element-plugin.html
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apu
I'm reminded most strongly of this statement from one of PG's essays:
"...eventually the open source world won, by producing Javascript libraries
that grew over the brokenness of Explorer the way a tree grows over barbed
wire."

It's amazing to see this happen for non-javascript issues as well.

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altano
This is a prototype: "Mozilla's Vladimir Vukićević has developed a working
prototype which demonstrates the viability of the plugin approach... There are
still some missing pieces, however, including support for several drawing
functions. It's still largely a work in progress, and development is still at
a somewhat early stage."

"Mozilla might drag IE into the future with Canvas element plugin" would be
more apt.

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boucher
The notion that this needs to be a plugin is mistaken. There are several apps
out there that built a compatibility layer on top of VML in JavaScript and do
it with plenty of speed. The author himself notes Google Maps. 280 Slides does
the same thing.

~~~
Locke
VML and Canvas provide very different APIs and behave very differently.
Explorer Canvas maps the Canvas API onto VML with very poor results. It may be
possible to build a library that uses either Canvas or VML but they're so
different I almost think it'd be easier to target each separately. Either way,
this is a non-trivial pain in the neck.

It's amazing how desperately people want canvas compatibility in IE. It's such
a simple API, too. It's hard to imagine that it would take any real resources
for Microsoft to create a nice, fast implementation. But, once again they seem
to prefer holding the web hostage.

You're right though, it seems unlikely that a plugin will succeed. But, the
fact that someone's working on creating one is more proof of how lacking the
other workarounds are and how much people want this technology.

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magixman
There are a number of folks who can't install plug-ins because their machine
is locked down or won’t because whoever the family friend is who cleans up
their PC messes has successfully drilled into their heads the "just say no"
mantra for whenever a security prompt rears its ugly head.

I applaud Mozilla for doing something that will make Canvas more universal but
I am afraid that for really horizontal applications using one of the
compatibility layer libraries is the only sensible approach. Do you really
want the first impression of your app to start off with a security prompt?

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jimbokun
"Mozilla is working on a much more ambitious initiative called Screaming
Monkey that will make it possible to plug Mozilla's entire next-generation
JavaScript engine directly into Microsoft's web browser."

Embrace and extend, anyone?

I like Mozilla's chutzpa.

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staunch
A plugin is a total nonstarter. It'd be easier to tell users to switch to
Firefox to use your site than to get them to install a plugin.

~~~
gojomo
I dunno; if their favorite site asks them to install it? If it's bundled with
Adobe Flash or Acrobat, or Google Toolbar or Desktop?

~~~
jauco
I think I have accidentally downvoted you to zero points. Could someone
correct my mistake?

