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Google Docs will now use canvas based rendering

workspaceupdates.googleblog.com

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Re: Google Docs will now use canvas based rendering

#201

Post by strogonoff »

dmitriid wrote: post #87
zozbot234 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Slapping some rectangles on a raster surface" can also be done in HTML/CSS, with the right options (set 'overflow' content to be clipped with no reflow).

No, it can't be done in HTML+CSS in a performant way.

VS Code feels performant enough, with its complex functionality IMO exceeding Google Docs, and yet I don't think it is using canvas. I believe it comes down to strategic design that avoids unnecessary layout and reflow events in the UI.

That said, the UI of VS Code (the desktop app) only needs to run in Chromium. And generally Google Docs could be a different enough beast that it can’t take advantage of the same tricks—hard to say from the outside.

Re: Google Docs will now use canvas based rendering

#202

Post by shadowgovt »

harikb wrote: post #12
notyourwork wrote: post #3

I don't build extensions or work on much front end web lately but this reads like Google wants more control over their stuff. The web is becoming less open. > By moving away from HTML-based rendering to a canvas-based rendering, some Chrome extensions may not function as intended on docs.google.com and may need to be updated. > If you are building your own integrations with Google Docs, we recommend using Google Work…

The part I don’t understand is how in the world is a renderer written in JavaScript better performing than their own Chrome c++ code? With Edge being a Chrome clone and Safari being also performant browser, what are they worried about?

JavaScript is actually quite fast these days, especially if one has a compiler in the flow to narrow it to the set of operations that are known to be high-performance.

And Google would be paying a lot of that cost anyway if the DOM is the render target, because what they gain in the render algorithm being precompiled assembly they lose in the JavaScript layer pushing the wrong abstraction around to trigger all that C++ code.

Re: Google Docs will now use canvas based rendering

#203

Post by newscracker »

dahfizz wrote: post #177
pdkl95 wrote: post #99

Ever since WebAssembly was first introduced, I thought it was obvious[1][2] that the end game for those that want to control the web is sending opaque binary blobs of code that only use the browser for the canvas tag's framebuffer. Font rendering and layout can all easily be accomplished by embedding libraries like freetype. This breaks all forms of user control - like ad blockers - and turns the web back into cable…

Yet another reason to use Pi-hole. The web browser is the wrong place to try and fight against this sort of thing. Secure your home network once instead of fighting an arms race on each device you have.

There’s a place for DNS based ad blocking like Pi-hole or NextDNS and a place for first party ad blocking and element blocking (and even script blocking) using uBlock Origin, NoScript, etc. They’re complementary in certain ways.

Re: Google Docs will now use canvas based rendering

#205

Post by switch007 »

sgt wrote: post #103
pdkl95 wrote: post #99

Ever since WebAssembly was first introduced, I thought it was obvious[1][2] that the end game for those that want to control the web is sending opaque binary blobs of code that only use the browser for the canvas tag's framebuffer. Font rendering and layout can all easily be accomplished by embedding libraries like freetype. This breaks all forms of user control - like ad blockers - and turns the web back into cable…

It's a bad thing in terms of openness but a good thing in terms of performance and making web applications more like real desktop applications. A lot of DOM work is a nightmare, so I sort of welcome to the Canvas based approach.

> but a good thing in terms of performance

Performance is a poison chalice. Many, many people were won over by Chrome's blistering speed. Now they won't have proper ad blocking.

Re: Google Docs will now use canvas based rendering

#206

Post by spuz »

riffraff wrote: post #139
abraxas wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they already have with Flutter

yeah flutter's "web" target has a whole UI framework built inside the tag

Specifically Flutter 2 which was announced recently and introduces the "web" target and is based on .

Re: Google Docs will now use canvas based rendering

#207

Post by londons_explore »

sime2009 wrote: post #182
londons_explore wrote: post #159

Am I the only one who doesn't really have any performance issues with Google Docs? The initial loading speed is aggravating - but that is just down to the size of the codebase. Actual rendering performance when I type is imperceptible to me. Putting a few hundred words and a few images onto the screen is presumably very quick whatever technology one uses to render it.

I suspect that accuracy of rendering and consistency across platforms is the bigger concern here. There are enough differences between how different browsers and operating systems render text via the DOM, to make it very hard to get consistent results between then all. By using canvas they can get very close to pixel perfect consistency. (Especially if they bring their own FreeType library or similar along.)

You can already get nearly pixel-perfect consistency by rendering each character as a separate dom element at specific X-Y coordinates.

Then the browser isn't responsible for line wrapping or anything.

It has the benefit you can still use the browser for GPU acceleration and calculation of damage rectangles.

I'd also question how important identical cross-device rendering is in todays world of vastly different screen sizes.

Re: Google Docs will now use canvas based rendering

#208

Post by [deleted] »

dahfizz wrote: post #177
pdkl95 wrote: post #99

Ever since WebAssembly was first introduced, I thought it was obvious[1][2] that the end game for those that want to control the web is sending opaque binary blobs of code that only use the browser for the canvas tag's framebuffer. Font rendering and layout can all easily be accomplished by embedding libraries like freetype. This breaks all forms of user control - like ad blockers - and turns the web back into cable…

Yet another reason to use Pi-hole. The web browser is the wrong place to try and fight against this sort of thing. Secure your home network once instead of fighting an arms race on each device you have.

[deleted]

Re: Google Docs will now use canvas based rendering

#209

Post by asciimov »

dahfizz wrote: post #177
pdkl95 wrote: post #99

Ever since WebAssembly was first introduced, I thought it was obvious[1][2] that the end game for those that want to control the web is sending opaque binary blobs of code that only use the browser for the canvas tag's framebuffer. Font rendering and layout can all easily be accomplished by embedding libraries like freetype. This breaks all forms of user control - like ad blockers - and turns the web back into cable…

Yet another reason to use Pi-hole. The web browser is the wrong place to try and fight against this sort of thing. Secure your home network once instead of fighting an arms race on each device you have.

Pi-hole wont protect you here, they will send the entire page, ads and all as an encrypted binary blob. Decrypting it is illegal, and since the data is coming from a single source Pi-hole can't block it.

Pi-hole (and ad-blocking) days are numbered. Hopefully that day is further out than I dread.

Re: Google Docs will now use canvas based rendering

#210

Post by bushbaba »

duxup wrote: post #185
pdkl95 wrote: post #99

Ever since WebAssembly was first introduced, I thought it was obvious[1][2] that the end game for those that want to control the web is sending opaque binary blobs of code that only use the browser for the canvas tag's framebuffer. Font rendering and layout can all easily be accomplished by embedding libraries like freetype. This breaks all forms of user control - like ad blockers - and turns the web back into cable…

I've watched a weird mix of "I don't like javascript" that usually actually translates to "I don't like what some people do with javascript." along side some cheer leading for webassembly... Now those obviously aren't entirely connected arguments, but whatever "I don't like what some people do with javascript" is supposed to mean, it has nothing to do with javascript. It's just what people do with it. Here we go now,…

Reminds me of the pain with Java & flash on the web.

What’s old is new again eh.

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