Re: As foundation for a large text editor web app, would WebGPU be quicker than the 2DContext in HTML Canvas?

I think yes, using WebGL or WebGPU would be much faster than using the
canvas 2D context if it's optimized properly.
A good example is makepad, which is open source, written in Rust and uses
WebGL:
https://github.com/makepad/makepad
demo:
https://makepad.dev/

I suspect the difference between WebGL and WebGPU will not be significant,
at least initially while WebGPU is still very new.

On Wed, Jul 14, 2021 at 11:44 AM Eamon O'Tuathail <eamon.otuathail@gmail.com>
wrote:

> There are a number of ways of creating a text editor in a web app:
> 1) using contenteditable
> 2) using hidden text area (e.g. as seen with the Visual Studio Code's
> Monaco text editor)
>
> https://www.mozzafiller.com/posts/how-does-monaco-editor-enable-textediting-on-a-web-page
> 3) using HTML Canvas
>
> It seems for the larger text editor projects there is a trend to using the
> HTML Canvas-approach, mostly using the 2D Context with some use of WebGL.
> Here are some examples:
>
> Visual Studio Code's use of canvas for the integrated terminal is
> described here:
> https://code.visualstudio.com/blogs/2017/10/03/terminal-renderer
>
> The Register here writes about Google moving its editors to Canvas:
>   https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/13/google_warns_docs_rewrite_will/
> Also Y Combinator has a very interesting thread discussing this:
>   https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27129858
>
> In particular in the Y Combinator discussion I note Microsoft's Tyiar
> states:
> -----------------
> "I wrote the terminal canvas renderers in VS Code that has been called out
> a few times here. Initially I implemented a canvas renderer using just a 2d
> context to draw many textures which sped things up "5 to 45 times"[1] over
> the older DOM renderer.
> Since then I moved onto a WebGL renderer[2] which was mostly a personal
> project, it's basically the first canvas renderer but better in every way
> since it works by organizing a typed array (very fast) and sending it to
> the GPU in one go, as opposed to piece meal and having the browser do its
> best to optimize/reduce calls. This was measured to improve performance by
> up to 900% in some cases over the canvas renderer"
> ----------------
>
> I suspect WebGPU will be faster than WebGL, so my question is, would a
> text editor based on WebGPU be the absolutely fastest way of delivering a
> modern text editing experience in a web browser/PWA app?
>
> Anyone got thoughts if this would be the case or real world (prototype)
> experience of this?
>
> Eamon O'Tuathail
> https://clipcode.net
>