Canvas in NodeJS and notes on non-browser implementations

https://github.com/LearnBoost/node-canvas
"Node canvas is a Cairo backed Canvas implementation for NodeJS"

NodeJS uses V8 to run JavaScript on a variety of platforms.

node-canvas is another non-browser implementation of Canvas. Other 
non-browser implementations of Canvas include Java, Flash and C#.

node-canvas is a bit easier to use an install on the server-side as it 
does not require items like X11 (which Java does).

Flash is a bit easier on the client-side given the ease of downloading 
the Flash player.

Both are a bit easier than setting up Batik for rendering of basic SVG 
scenes using JS SVG implementations. Keep in mind that Batik is an 
excellent SVG engine.

I'm keeping an eye on PostGIS Raster as another area where Canvas 
support may develop on the server:
http://trac.osgeo.org/postgis/wiki/WKTRaster

Though PostGIS Raster does not support the Canvas 2d API, it does have 
excellent low-level raster support and some interesting hooks for 
multidimensional data. For those interesting in experimenting, PostGIS 
may be a good place to work with 2d and 3d API hybrids.

See also GDAL, relevant if you'd like to skip the PostgreSQL step of 
PostGIS:
http://www.gdal.org/


-Charles

Received on Sunday, 18 December 2011 20:46:49 UTC