Re: [Matrix] restating the goals?

On Thu, Mar 21, 2013 at 3:29 PM, Dirk Schulze <dschulze@adobe.com> wrote:

> Actually, I think we already reach a common ground in this discussion. And
> we are more discussing details of certain functionalities. And some data to
> current implementations may help:
>
> I checked the behavior on WebKitCSSMatrix and MSCSSMatrix under certain
> conditions:
>
> * Attributes do take unrestricted floats:
>
> var m = new WebKitCSSMatrix() / MSCSSMatrix();
> m.a = Math.NaN;
>
> Does work in both implementations.
>
> * m.scale(Math.NaN) does work
>
> Returns Math.NaN on the multiplied elements of the matrix.
>
> * m.inverse()
>
> on WebKit returns a Matrix with NaN elements
> on MS throws exception
>
> And I checked implementations of SVGMatrix:
>
> * Attributes do take unrestricted floats:
>
> var m = svg.createSVGMatrix();
> m.a = Math.NaN;
>
> Does work in all implementations (IE, WebKit, Opera) but FF.
>
> * m.scale(Math.NaN)
>
> Does work in all implementations (IE, WebKit, Opera) but FF.
>
> * m.inverse()
>
> Does work if the matrix is not singular OR if the elements are NaN for
> Opera and WebKit. Otherwise throws.
> Does not work if matrix is singular or if matrix has an element with NaN
> for IE and FF.
>

Does that mean that it's throwing for non-singular matrices on all browsers?


>
> Actually, the behavior of SVGMatrix.inverse() is not consistently
> implemented enough for authors to rely on it. We actually might be able to
> break backward compatibility to SVG 1.1.
>
>
> On Mar 21, 2013, at 3:01 PM, Dean Jackson <dino@apple.com> wrote:
>
> > Since the discussion has exploded to the point of being difficult to
> follow, with a number of people expressing strong objections to the
> proposal, I was wondering if it was worth stopping to decide if we can at
> least agree on the goals at a very high level.
> >
> > - Have some way to express a CSS (and SVG) transformation in JS that is
> better than the current solution of the CSS OM (uses long strings which
> need to be parsed in/out)
> >
> > - Do this in a way that doesn't break existing content (i.e. we can't
> change SVGMatrix, as much as we'd love to). This could mean a completely
> new API.
> >
> > - Help developers do the common things with simple, performant code.
> >
> > When I look at the above, I wonder if the problem comes from this
> assuming to be a Matrix API. It's really just an API for the native
> transformations that exist in the platform. Is it possible to think of it
> as a way to accomplish a transformation in JS that corresponds to what
> you'd typically use CSS for? e.g.
> >
> > element.style.transform = "translate3d(10px, 10px, 10px) rotateY(1rad)
> scale(2)";
> >
> > Should be able to be expressed something like this:
> >
> > var t = new Transform();
> > t.translate3d(10, 10, 10);
> > t.rotateY(1);
> > t.scale(2);
> > element.transformMatrix = t;
>
> This proposal goes more to Transform and TransformList, which is different
> from Matrix but very valid as well.
>
> Greetings,
> Dirk
>
> >
> > This would mean all the inverse/decompose/etc stuff gets dropped, which
> is fine with me. Again, the target is our transformation implementation,
> not a general matrix library. If the transformMatrix property, or whatever
> it is called, accepted a Float32Array, then people could use whatever
> matrix library they want.
> >
> > Or, to give an example on the goals (copied from another message):
> >
> > Improve this code:
> >
> > function rotateMyObject(element, delta) {
> >  var currentTransform = window.getComputedStyle(element).transform;
> >  // ouch, that's a matrix string... i need to somehow convert it to an
> object i can use
> >  // ... time passes
> >  var currentTransformMatrix; // I've converted it to something useful now
> >  // now I need to rotate it...
> >  // I either use some library or do it by hand
> >  // ... time passes
> >  // ok... now to set the transform...
> >  element.style.transform = "matrix3d(" + currentTransformMatrix.array[0]
> + ", " ......
> >  // note the above will have to go through the CSS parser, etc
> > }
> >
> > Into something as simple as this:
> >
> > function rotateMyObject(element, delta) {
> >  element.style.transformMatrix =
> window.getComputedStyle(element).transformMatrix.rotate(delta);  // API
> completely invented here
> > }
> >
> > Honestly, I don't really care what the solution is (Typed arrays, new
> objects, elephants...)
> >
> > Dean
> >
> >
>
>
>