[webkit-dev] Feature announcement: canvas pixel access API additions for high-resolution backing stores

[Darin Fisher]

On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 12:55 PM, Maciej Stachowiak <mjs at apple.com> wrote:

>
> On Apr 16, 2012, at 10:52 AM, Darin Fisher wrote:
>
> Could this be an opportunity to design an asynchronous API for fetching
> the pixel buffer?  It seems like many implementations are GPU backed now,
> and fetching the pixel buffer is an expensive (blocking) operation.  Had
> you considered making such a change?
>
>
> Adding async support was suggested on the whatwg thread about this. I
> think async support is useful, but should not be tied to high DPI support.
> In particular, we shouldn't, in my opinion, require authors to rewrite
> their existing sync code to an async model just to properly support higher
> resolutions.
>
> In addition, the whatwg thread revealed that there are many hidden
> complexities in the design of get/putImageData, in particular designing how
> they work in the face of sychronous drawing operations to the same canvas.
> The HiDPI problem is much more straightforward and does not need to be
> gated on resolving the async design issues.
>
>
I think you are giving up a good opportunity.  The barriers to an async API
are more readily overcome when there are extra benefits to developers.
 HiDPI could be a great way to attract developers to a better API.

I've addressed those other concerns on the WhatWG thread.

-Darin



>
> Regards,
> -Darin
>
>
>
> On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 6:17 PM, Dan Bernstein <mitz at apple.com> wrote:
>
>> [This is actually an enhancement announcement to an existing feature]
>>
>> Over at <
>> http://lists.whatwg.org/htdig.cgi/whatwg-whatwg.org/2012-March/035112.html>,
>> Edward O’Connor has proposed enhancements to CanvasRenderingContext2D to
>> allow authors to take full advantage of high-resolution backing stores,
>> when available (whereas the existing API hides the fact that the backing
>> store resolution is not CSS pixel resolution, for compatibility with
>> existing content). The enhancements include a backingStorePixelRatio
>> attribute and {get,put}ImageDataHD functions on CanvasRenderingContext2D.
>>
>> Through <https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=83619> and <
>> https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=83836>, I am making these
>> enhancements, with the names prefixed with “webkit”.
>>
>> There is no build-time option to disable these enhancements. Ports that
>> don’t opt into ENABLE_HIGH_DPI_CANVAS get a working, albeit boring, version
>> of the additional API. Ports that opt into high-DPI canvas need to enhance
>> their ImageBuffer implementation to fully support the resolutionScale and
>> CoordinateSystem parameters.
>> _______________________________________________
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>> webkit-dev at lists.webkit.org
>> http://lists.webkit.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/webkit-dev
>>
>
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