To add a quick but slightly more detailed clarification, between the concepts of Canvas as bitmap and SVG as vectors:
An image in HTML canvas, is stored as a matrix of pixels. Individual pixels in the matrix, can be accessed and modified with canvas API methods.
The canvas drawing API allows to draw vector graphic primitives on the canvas, but these are immediatly rasterized as pixels.
So the image is always a bitmap.
In SVG, an image is stored as a set of graphics primitives. There is a primitive that can hold external bitmap images. But there is no way to read or modify individual pixels. Only parameters in the primitive definition can be accessed.
In the Canvas it is possible to operate directly over pixels. In SVG only the mathematical definitions of the shapes primitives can be modified.
So complex pixel procesing algorithms are possible with Canvas, but not with SVG.
There is one huge company, whose name start with g, highly interested in all of the above (they want to make a web apps based os). but seems like they have lacked the inspiration, or...
mm.... maybe they are quietly doing it right now, with NaCl
That doesnt change the fact that mozilla isnt interested in NaCl, which is sad because it could enable alot of cool stuff, especially in regards to games and realtime apps.
Excellent point. Thats the same experience I had when moved to the flash platform, some years back.
Now that I am coming back to html-javascript, i can help but feel frustrated by the mess that is html app development.
My dream for the web platform, would be that the committees would create some kind of underlying bytecode and basic graphic primitives. On top of which different programming languages and graphic Apis could be implemented. Then, to develop hyperlinked documents, you can use an hyperlinked document oriented API. To develop complex UI, you can use a complex UI oriented API.
Maybe the web is now near that goal. Javascript could be the bytecode. And the DOM (wich I hate with passion) could be replaced by a GUI toolkit build on top of the html canvas. I would love to work on that, if I had time available.
Somehow, when I was a kid, and I got my first computer, it was an Amiga 3000. The amiga was already dying, but as a kid I was not able to at first realize that.
What personally killed the Amiga for me, was the graphics power. The Amiga 3000 "enhanced chipset", best graphic mode was 320x200 with 64 colors (extra half brigth). Meanwhile, PC VGA displays 800x600 and 1024x768 256 colors were starting to become popular on the PC side. The Amiga was clearly behind.
The Amiga was also capable of 640x400, but only with 16 colors. And the "HAM" mode, 4096 simultaneos colors on low res 320x200, suffered from "color fringing" and was mostly unusable.
What would have made me happy back then, was a 736 x 482 overscan mode with 4096 real simultaneous colors.
I wish I could restore all the game demos that I made back then with Amos Basic. lots of simple games, a basic doom clone, musical apps, etc. I would love to give a look at that code again.
What I do for estimations, is to break tasks into small pieces, then estimate each piece, and add the total. As someone said, it is highly advisable to still double the total.
One of my customers, which I greatly admire, is very old guard and don't buy nothing of agile, extreme, scrum, etc. He only accept strict a to b estimates. Working with him, while hard, has made me much better at making estimates.
I work 100% remotely, from not a first world country, and my hourly rate has been escalating with each project. Currently at around 40$/hour. But instead of cashing in, I am rather investing time into improving more, and preparing some interesting personal projects that define myself.
I love great challenges, and want to eventually get into something really interesting. Or maybe I will go by myself, and launch a startup that I has been thinking about for some time.
Recently, I have been examining various 2D html APIs. I find the oCanvas API to be excellent.
In comparison with Raphael, I find that both libraries are good and useful.
In computer graphics, there are two main approaches for 2D: vector and bitmap. Each one has their situations where it is the most convenient.
Raphael is SVG based, vector graphics. oCanvas is html canvas based, bitmap graphics. So each one will have situations where it is the most convenient.
For example, scalable graphics, made of solid lines and shapes, are better suited with the vector approach. While diffuse images and image processing is better suited with the bitmap approach.
oCanvas employs object literals to accede to the various graphic operations. I find that makes the code more readable and thus easier to maintain, than the Raphael API, which makes use of plain function parameters for that.
Some differences that I found: Raphael have support for paths, vector fonts, and premade charts, which oCanvas doesn’t have.
On the other hand, oCanvas have support for animated sprites, scenes and timeline/game loop.
The main difference is that cloud9Ide is a general purpose IDE, while akshell is intended as a tool for Akshell platform development.
Akshell is an IDE (version 0.3 currently) to create javascript apps on the Akshell infrastructure. Which seem to be based nodeJS, or something similar:
"The Akshell engine is based on Google V8. It compiles JavaScript code
into native code; so execution is utterly fast."
The Akshell infrastructure seems to be composed of a javascript/html framework, a relational database javascript API, the IDE to create apps, a git server to host code, and a infrastructure to handle deployment and scale of apps. It claims that the platform will be open sourced soon, so you will be able to host apps on your own server.
The cloud9ide is a more general IDE, with syntax highlight for various languages: javascript, ruby, python, html, css, coffee script, XML, PHP, and more may be added in the future.
Some features provided are integration with github, nodeJS debugging, team chat and team management, an extensions mechanism, and themes.
I find syntax highlight to perform similar on both IDEs.
Cloud9ide license is free for open source projects, with a monthly fee for private projects.
I couldn’t find license terms on the Akshell Ide. Currently they are on open beta, and I suppose that pricing terms will be announced at a later time.
I use ubuntu as my main OS, for development and 2D/3D graphics design.
Really like what I have seen of unity.
A small detail: I don't like the drums and the jungle default sound effects, when starting ubuntu. Windows & apple are far better in this regard.
In applications, I don't like plain text menus. I think it would be a great idea, to add a some by default way, in wich all the applications plain text menus could be collapsed inside an icon, like in firefox4 or google chrome.
As always, make the default theme to look brilliant.
An image in HTML canvas, is stored as a matrix of pixels. Individual pixels in the matrix, can be accessed and modified with canvas API methods.
The canvas drawing API allows to draw vector graphic primitives on the canvas, but these are immediatly rasterized as pixels. So the image is always a bitmap.
In SVG, an image is stored as a set of graphics primitives. There is a primitive that can hold external bitmap images. But there is no way to read or modify individual pixels. Only parameters in the primitive definition can be accessed.
In the Canvas it is possible to operate directly over pixels. In SVG only the mathematical definitions of the shapes primitives can be modified. So complex pixel procesing algorithms are possible with Canvas, but not with SVG.