<canvas .../> is an HTML element that first popped up in Safari, where it helped Apple create Dashboard. It is being standardized by What-WG and added into Mozilla 1.5. I guess that Konqueror may be able to get support easily from Safari, it is on the list at least.

I've thought a number of times that this is all irrelevant for the next 5 years at least. Currently there is no <canvas .../> in IE, and I can't see Microsoft adding one into IE7, so we'd need to wait for IE8, or for IE to fall to less than 10% market-share. Even at the current 1% a month we've got another 5/6 years to go and I'm sure IE7 will slow down the decline.

So while <canvas .../> is neat I didn't plan on adding it into my list of things to investigate, until now.

I stumbled across the magic incantation: 369303C2-D7AC-11D0-89D5-00A0C90833E6 which happens to be the GUID for DirectAnimation. DirectAnimation is part of ActiveX, but so is XML.HTTP which is the foundation of Ajax in I.E.

You can see a demo of DirectAnimation - I.E. only, obviously. And it is described by WebDevelopersJournal if you want to know more.

So here is the challenge: Write some Javascript that detects lack of support for canvas, and support for DirectAnimation. It then replaces the <canvas .../> element with an <object .../> element which invokes DirectAnimation. The Javascript will then have some wrappers that convert the <canvas .../> Javascript function into DirectAnimation calls.

I have no idea if it is possible, but it sounds like it could be very interesting if it works.

Update: Emil A Eklund has implemented the Canvas Tag for IE using VML

Responses[5]

Posted by Joe Walker on 02 August 2005 12:08:59 BST #