JSON Canvas – An open file format for infinite canvas data

Post by dolmen » Wed, Mar 13, 2024, 4:31 PM UTC

altairprime wrote: post #37

kepano wrote: post #15

Whoa! Didn't expect this to bubble up to the top of HN. Some context about why we created JSON Canvas: https://obsidian.md/blog/json-canvas/ We just released it today, so this is still a very nascent project. A little over a year ago we released Obsidian Canvas. The .canvas file format has felt stable enough to give it a name and resources that other apps can freely use. See the original Show HN: https://news.ycombin…

For those having difficulty viewing the spec at the linked jsoncanvas.org site, the spec/1.0 pane on the right has the scrollbar hidden; there's more content if you scroll that pane down.

Post by dolmen » Wed, Mar 13, 2024, 4:40 PM UTC

wizzwizz4 wrote: post #118

exceptione wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author of SQLite is quite open about it. The lack of typing has been part of the design from the beginning. Sqlite has hardly any types: INT INTEGER REAL TEXT BLOB ANY Of course one can program all kind of check constraints, like one can program all kinds of value validations in javascript. Unfortunately, that is not the same as typing. Sqlite lacks typing because, as the sqlite author explains in the docs, flexi…

Aren't these the types? NULL INT(EGER) REAL TEXT BLOB (INTEGER PRIMARY KEY)

Post by dolmen » Thu, Mar 14, 2024, 10:09 AM UTC

gcr wrote: post #50

This is a great idea. For now though, the spec is under-specified and ambiguously terse. A few points that could be clarified: - How do coordinates work? Does +Y point up (OpenGL) or down (web)? Is the origin meaningful? What are the units - how does this interact with font sizes? High-DPI displays? - What’s the difference between a file node and a URL node linking to file://./? Are files supposed to be transcluded?…

Post by heleninboodler » Thu, Mar 14, 2024, 6:31 PM UTC

kijin wrote: post #126

heleninboodler wrote: post #9

Suggestion: add some metadata at the top level, including a bounding box that includes all nodes so that you can encapsulate a canvas and include it within another context before having created all the elements within it. It's redundant information and it needs to be kept in sync with the nodes and edges, but it's very useful for applications working with your data. Also, this is not very json-ish, but optimizing you…

+1 for bounding box. It would save a lot of computation when trying to determine the initial scale for the canvas, especially if text is involved. It would also make the format useful for fixed-size canvases, not only infinite ones.