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Maintainer here. dang suggested I add a comment to the thread to help start possible conversations about the project. So I'll answer 3 self-asked questions. "W
by rikroots 7y ago
Maintainer here. dang suggested I add a comment to the thread to help start possible conversations about the project. So I'll answer 3 self-asked questions.
"Why did you start the project?"
Short answer: I'd spent 3 years trying to get my first job in tech (London). A recruiter took pity on me in 2013 and suggested I build up a portfolio of projects on GitHub to showcase my abilities. I started a project which included an animation on canvas, and took the decision to code the animation using the canvas API rather than an existing library. I got a bit obsessive about the canvas element over the next few years. 7 years later, I'm finally beginning to feel happy and confident in the work.
"What problems does the project solve?"
My view is that there's three big issues with the <canvas> element: accessibility; responsiveness; fun.
Accessibility - because the current canvas element completely fails users who access websites with non-visual browsers and devices. All information contained in the graphic output is a black box to them. This has to change.
Responsiveness - because the current canvas element doesn't know how to play nicely with CSS responsive design patterns.
Fun - because trying to do anything reasonably complex with the Canvas API is not fun.
"What are your hopes for the project?"
I'm not looking for the library to take the frontend world by storm (though it is a nice fantasy).
What would really make me happy would be if maintainers of other canvas libraries look at what I've tried to do with Scrawl-canvas around the areas of accessibility and responsiveness, and add that sort of functionality to their projects - hopefully in even better, more efficient ways.
Oh - and finding some collaborators to work on the project would also be good, because I've spent too long working on it by myself and it could really do with some fresh eyes and opinions.
- BrowserMeeting 7y agoI can’t get it to load on the latest Safari on iOS. It looks fine in Chrome though! Super cool.
- LunaSea 7y agohttps://caniuse.com/#feat=intersectionobserver https://caniuse.com/#feat=intersectionobserver Lots of Safari versions don't support IntersectionObserver it would seem. Then again, Safari is the new IE.
- rikroots 7y agoThank you! I only have limited resources to test the library. I managed to get it working in Safari on MacOS (though not perfectly - tabbing through the links in the kitchen canvas moves the canvas out of view). All bug reports of the site not working on various devices are very welcome! If it is IntersectionObserver causing the problem (as reported in the other comment) - that's sad. I'm using IO on the landing page to switch off the animations when they're not in view; the last thing I want the library to do is drain people's batteries.
- orange8 7y ago> 7 years later, I'm finally beginning to feel happy and confident in the work. Feelings aside, I think you are naturally gifted. The work has always been good, just took you seven years to realize that.