[whatwg] High-density canvases

[Glenn Maynard]

On Mon, Sep 9, 2013 at 7:31 PM, Ian Hickson <ian at hixie.ch> wrote:

> Right, resetting the context would definitely be part of the deal. This
> mode would be specifically defined as a mode where you had to listen to
> onresize or your canvas would almost certainly get cleared sooner or
> later. In fact, we could go further, and say that canvases that aren't
> getting rendered at all (e.g. display:none, off-screen, background tab)
> can get cleared, with the deal being that next time you need to show the
> canvas you immediately get an onresize.
>

It would be better if the resize didn't happen until the page is actually
ready to re-render.  That way, the canvas doesn't flicker if it's rendered
before the page actually does render (eg. it may need to reload resources
to render).  Rendering a blurry canvas briefly is better than rendering a
blank canvas.

For example, add a method "resizeToCurrentDPI()", and don't do it
automatically at all.  Fire an event when calling the method *would* cause
a change of canvas size.  The page can then load resources asynchronously
as needed, and call the method when it's ready to redraw, avoiding any
period where a blank canvas might be composited.


> Yeah, my suggestion, if we do this, would be to not do it until high
> density displays are even more widely available than now. This is mostly a
> convenience and performance-improving API, not a critical feature add.
>

High-DPI displays are already widespread in mobile (all Apple devices
except for the iPad Mini; the Kindle Fire HD), and by contrast there's no
sign of them for desktops, so I think we're either there now or we won't be
for a long time.

-- 
Glenn Maynard