Scrawl-canvas VS lowdefy

> working with glyphs and iterating them in reverse for RTL is brain-breaking. And line wrapping gets really complicated. It's also the most obscure because nobody has written down everything you need to know in one place

I can confirm this. I've been working on a (much simpler!) text layout engine for my canvas library over the past couple of months and the amount of complexity associated with just stamping some glyphs onto a canvas has left me screaming at my laptop on an almost daily basis. Getting a decent underline was a proud moment!

Question: did you ever find out what algorithm the various browsers are using to calculate how many words can fit on a given line? I'm almost there, except words will occasionally jump between lines when I scale the text. Really annoying!

The PR's still a work in progress, but I've got all the functionality I want in there (shaping lines to fit in non-rectangular containers, styling text, text along a non-straight line, dynamic updates, etc). Just need to test and document it all now ... https://github.com/KaliedaRik/Scrawl-canvas/pull/75

I've got myself organised and prepared a List Of Things To Do[1] to make my 2D Javascript library even better than it already is. Given that I've been working on the library for over 10 years now, and have never before set out such a list, I call this Progress!

[1] https://github.com/KaliedaRik/Scrawl-canvas/discussions/cate...

'Kay, I don't know if this anywhere close to what the OP wants, but this sort of live browser tab manipulation is possible to do using a mix of a a canvas element and the browser's Screen Capture API[1] (plus my JS canvas library, once I merge and publish the changes into its next release[2]).

This solution[3] shows the modified browser tab in a separate browser tab. I've got no idea whether it's possible to do the same sort of trick in the same tab (but probably not). I also have no idea how secure the Screen Capture API is - I'd get very nervous about doing this sort of thing when looking at my bank's online portal!

[1] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Screen_Capt...

[2] https://github.com/KaliedaRik/Scrawl-canvas/pull/57

[3] Youtube video of the effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCi6LmKMAo0

My canvas library's README[1] has a video embedded in it. FWIW I'm not convinced it adds anything to the library's sales pitch.

[1] https://github.com/KaliedaRik/Scrawl-canvas

> And I’m just mentioning some of the unfixable problems with this approach

I agree that using a canvas instead of leveraging existing accessibility supplied by HTML/CSS/JS and the DOM is an accessibility nightmare.

However, I disagree that canvas accessibility issues are "unfixable". Difficult? Yes. But not unfixable. In my view, the element works best in partnership with its wider environment (HTML/CSS/JS and the DOM), not as a replacement for it. With that in mind, we can start to tackle the accessibility issues you raise - fonts, links, interactions, etc.[1][2]

I have an ambition to one day become intelligent enough to understand/code in Rust, and I'm really glad to see that people are thinking about accessibility as a fundamental part of UIs being developed in Rust.

[1] - Which is what my JS 2d canvas library tries to do: https://scrawl-v8.rikweb.org.uk/

[2] - My thoughts on accessibility, and how I try to fix them using my library: https://scrawl-v8.rikweb.org.uk/learn/eleventh-lesson/

If, however, your company is set on this course, I very strongly suggest you use a canvas library - if only for the MVP. Here's my canvas library (spam alert!) ... even if you don't use it in your product, the library might help give you some ideas on how to overcome some of the responsive, interactive and accessibility issues you'll be facing.

Scrawl-canvas - example and another example (links to code at bottom of each page)

My personal experience as a library developer, who has written my library in JS, not TS ...

TS is an excellent choice for a lib dev starting a new project today. I can see the advantages of using TS for the library code - in particular for a library that gets popular and welcomes contributions from other developers. However TS is a nightmare for someone like me who: 1. started writing the library 9 years ago; 2. has let the library get "quite" big; and 3. has only learned to use TS in the past year (for the day job) and is nowhere near to becoming a types expert.

I've had experience of people suggesting I rewrite the library in TS. Sometimes those suggestions have been quite 'evangelical' in their tone. As an (essentially) solo developer I just don't have the time, capacity or willingness to do that work - however much the end results might please others.

I also understand that having type definitions file for the library's interface is, nowadays, a critical factor if the lib dev wants others to use the library in their projects. But writing a .d.ts file for a large, mature repo to at least help those potential users can quickly turn into a World of Hurt. I know this because I've done that work[1] and I never want to do it again.

As much as I know that TS is a Force for Good in the JS coding world, there are days when I detest it!

[1] - link to the Scrawl-canvas .d.ts file on GitHub - https://github.com/KaliedaRik/Scrawl-canvas/blob/master/sour...

I'm really enjoying reading through the docs and the tutorial. We've created Lowdefy, a config web-stack which makes it really simple to build quite advanced web apps. We're writing everything in YAML, but it has it's limitations, specifically when doing config type checking and IDE extensions that go beyond just YAML.

I've been looking for a way to have typed objects in the config to do config suggestions and type checking.. PKL looks like it can do this for us. And with the JSON output we might even be able to get there with minimal effort.

Is there anyone here with some PKL experience that would be willing to answer some technical questions re the use of PKL for more advanced, nested config?

See Lowdefy:

https://lowdefy.com/

https://github.com/lowdefy/lowdefy

Awsome! With Lowdefy we tried to build a low-code framework that works like code. We’ve developed a schema in which to define applications and we’ve built all kinds of apps for enterprise customers. Massive, advanced CRM systems, call centre solutions, ticketing systems, a light MRP, all kinds of survey apps and so many dashboards. Even our docs and our website are Lowdefy apps!

Give Lowdefy a try and reach out it you have any questions or want to see what is possible :) (We need to invest a lot more into content and examples, bootstapping is a grind!)

https://github.com/lowdefy/lowdefy

Also add Lowdefy onto the list https://github.com/lowdefy/lowdefy

co-founder here :)

100% this. And yes, good documentation takes a lot of investment but it pays off like compound interest. But with that done, it becomes even more important not to pull the carpet for no good reason, you are building a tower and documentation is at the foundation.

We’ve built Lowdefy [1] as an open source project and documented it with all effort, 200 pages of docs. I often forget why or how something works and then jump to the docs. This investment keeps on paying of as we use Lowdefy to build customer apps, new devs in the team typically take less than two week to get up to speed and start making contributions, the sharp ones, just a two or three days.

This year, we’re extended our documentation onto customer apps aswell, with flow diagrams, state machine definitions, detailed field level explication schema definitions, and end user test procedures. The key here for this documentation is detail. It should be easier to reach for the docs and the the answer, than to dive in the code and interpret it.

1 - https://github.com/lowdefy/lowdefy

https://github.com/lowdefy/lowdefy Co-Founder here.

Check out https://lowdefy.com/ they even have a sample survey app as one of their examples.

You can build an app that would do this

Lowdefy is a low code tool that uses AG Grid as a block component, allowing you to create apps which render data in AG Grid without a lot of coding knowledge. There is a Lowdefy example using AG Grid here.

Shameless plug, also check out Lowdefy - https://github.com/lowdefy/lowdefy

I’m also going to jump in here and say try Lowdefy https://github.com/lowdefy/lowdefy - co-founder here.

We take a different angle and believe that low code should still work like code. We focus on a developer first approach.