[whatwg] Canvas should be script-only, not an HTML element

[Ian Hickson]

On Sat, 28 May 2005, Lenny Domnitser wrote:
>
> Creating a non-semantic <canvas> element as the only element that can be 
> drawn on is backwards. Instead, a scripting interface to drawing should 
> take any element as a context node.

While I agree that this would be a more abstract design overall, it is 
unfortunately much more bug-prone. Implementations have historically had 
great problems with features that overload separate concepts on one 
element. The <object> element is one example of this; it has taken years 
to even approach interoperability, and even now it is not reliably usable 
across all browsers.

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'