Mozilla drags IE into the future with Canvas element plugin
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Mozilla drags IE into the future with Canvas element plugin
1–10 of 11 posts
Re: Mozilla drags IE into the future with Canvas element plugin
#2I'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.
Re: Mozilla drags IE into the future with Canvas element plugin
#3This 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.
Re: Mozilla drags IE into the future with Canvas element plugin
#4The 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.
Re: Mozilla drags IE into the future with Canvas element plugin
#5A 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.
Re: Mozilla drags IE into the future with Canvas element plugin
#6A 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.
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?
Re: Mozilla drags IE into the future with Canvas element plugin
#7The 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.
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.
Re: Mozilla drags IE into the future with Canvas element plugin
#8There 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?
Re: Mozilla drags IE into the future with Canvas element plugin
#9A 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.
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?
I think I have accidentally downvoted you to zero points. Could someone correct my mistake?
Re: Mozilla drags IE into the future with Canvas element plugin
#10"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.