[whatwg] Canvas Shadows - Unnecessary Barrier to Entry

[Charles Pritchard]

All,

It's my firmly held belief that #shadow should be removed from the HTML 
5 Canvas specs, as soon as possible.


We've been working on Javascript / Canvas projects for two years now.

We're in the process of releasing full implementations targeting the 
Common Runtime Language,
Java AWT, ActionScript and DCOM.

I'm sure you can all recognize, that these components have their own 
vector APIs,
and that we're only sending requests through as a proxy.

While we can implement everything, even the non-zero winding rule,
there one part of the specification that's absolutely rotten. And that's 
the #shadows section.

I love a shadow, I love a good looking UI, but most of these APIs do not 
have shadow
support for shapes.

Do we really need to include filters in the current canvas specs?
If we want a shadow, we can use get/putImage data, and setup our shadow.
If we're using a mixed implementation (looking at you FF3.5), we can 
borrow filters from that..

And speaking of shadow.
It doesn't even allow you to set a proper fill (shadowColor.. really? 
why waste my time).
I mean for goodness sakes, I can use a few drawImage calls and save 
myself the grief.

Please don't include a procedural "blur" in the Canvas specifications, 
it hurts everything and everyone.


-Charles

ps: tongue in cheek.