Canvas Tag Rant (was too long for Twitter)

Url: http://diveintohtml5.org/past.html#webapps-cdf

I am reading Deep Dive into HTML5 by Mark Pilgrim. So far its a great read about the creation and nature of HTML5. The first chapter is a great read about how HTML5 started out.

I was a bit perplexed by vision document that was part of the early push into HTML5 as a working group (emphasis is mine):

Scripting is here to stay
But should be avoided where more convenient declarative markup can be used. Scripting should be device and presentation neutral unless scoped in a device-specific way (e.g. unless included in XBL).

This further frustrates me about how the Canvas tag seems to be in direct violation of this vision. Having a tag that is so script-driven confuses me (not that it shouldn’t be scriptable, but the Canvas tag doesn’t do anything unless you write script). Hrmph…