Google Docs will now use canvas based rendering
workspaceupdates.googleblog.com
Google Docs will now use canvas based rendering
1–10 of 953 posts
Re: Google Docs will now use canvas based rendering
#2This might be a way to make Google Doc's feature that allows copy/paste to be disabled (https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2015/07/disable-down...) to be more secure.
Re: Google Docs will now use canvas based rendering
#3I 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 Workspace Add-ons framework, which uses the supported Workspace APIs and integration points. This will help ensure there will be less work in the future to support periodic UI implementation changes to Docs.
This is basically putting an API on top of an API as far as I'm concerned. The web renders markup and executes javascript to produce experience. Putting an API on top and using canvas to render your content creates a more closed system.
For those more deep in web technology, I'd like to know if there are reasons to move to canvas for strictly technical merits.
Re: Google Docs will now use canvas based rendering
#4I would like to know which ui library they use.
Re: Google Docs will now use canvas based rendering
#5Maybe because I am out of loop with web development, but this sounds like a huge change to me. So instead of HTML elements, there will be just one big element, and everything will be rendered there? How will text selection work for example? Will Google Docs basically implement a GUI library like GTK, which renders everything itself, but for the web?
Re: Google Docs will now use canvas based rendering
#6RIP web accessibility when everyone starts doing this to make ad blocking more difficult
Re: Google Docs will now use canvas based rendering
#7I would like to know which ui library they use.
Perhaps Flutter. It uses Canvas to render in the web.
Re: Google Docs will now use canvas based rendering
#8If they're going to make the leap of switching the render layer, I'm surprised the leap isn't to flutter (which is supposedly stable/ready for production web apps?).
Re: Google Docs will now use canvas based rendering
#9I 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 article says the reasons are,
> to improve performance and improve consistency
Re: Google Docs will now use canvas based rendering
#10I 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…
> I'd like to know if there are reasons to move to canvas for strictly technical merits.
In Google's announcements, they say the reason is performance.