Why do we need the html5 canvas element, when the same can be achieved through embedded svg?
A:
Because we then do not need to worry about what support such embedding ;-)
In this fashion the focus for application developpers is to adhere to standards and let the client designers do the same. and hence spare everyone to worry about plug-ins, versions, security setups, etc...
mjv
2009-10-30 15:26:13
if the browser can support the svg namespace, like gecko does, you should not be worried either, with the additional fact that in SVG you actually have a DOM to manipulate.
Stefano Borini
2009-10-30 15:31:30
And if the browser supports HTML5 but not the SVG namespace, like IE probably will?
ceejayoz
2009-10-30 15:40:52
Just use SVGWeb for IE, it's really quite easy. http://code.google.com/p/svgweb/
Erik Dahlström
2009-10-30 16:56:42
So in the end we end up having two techniques to do basically the same thing just because one browser is lagging behind in the innovation race ?
Stefano Borini
2009-10-30 18:04:03
+11
A:
SVG and canvas aren't really interchangeable technologies. SVG is a type of retained mode graphics where everything is drawn from a rather abstract model (the SVG document). Canvas on the other hand is a kind of immediate mode graphics, where there is no model and the client (JavaScript) must take care of redrawing, animations etc.
foolip
2009-10-30 17:18:16
+5
A:
http://people.mozilla.com/~vladimir/xtech2006/ has nice comparison.
With canvas you don't have to deal with the DOM, which leads to faster and easier to write code. SVG is a mess as a specification, too...
Nickolay
2009-10-31 05:48:30
+7
A:
SVG is a markup language for vector graphics and has DOM. This makes it very easy to alter the content after its creation.
Canvas is a painting surface just like MS Paint without an undo button. You cannot alter the content. You only can overpaint it. It is very performant because the browser does not need to handle a complete DOM for the image. And there is a possibility that canvas can handle 3D drawing in the future.
Gregor Müllegger
2009-10-31 19:50:19
+1
A:
an illustration: My blog engine (blogger) doesn't support SVG (it's not a XHTML document). I wrote a tool converting SVG to the canvas element: http://plindenbaum.blogspot.com/2009/11/tool-converting-svg-to-canvas_22.html
Pierre
2009-12-05 20:37:11