What surprises me about the omission of dashed lines is that every
graphics API I'm familiar with (Xlib, PostScript, Java 2D) supports
dashed lines. Unless there is some important platform out there that
does not support them in the underlying graphics library, it seems to me
that it would have been trivial to add dashed lines to the API.
And, I can't think of any simple or efficient way to simulate dashed
lines without having them in the API. And while dashed lines may not be
a high-use feature, I wouldn't say they're infrequently used. For
example: when drawing a line chart with multiple lines which is intended
to be printed on a black-and-white laser printer.
David Flanagan
Ian Hickson wrote:
On Fri, 17 Jun 2005, David Flanagan wrote:
Does the <canvas> tag really have no way to draw dashed and dotted
lines? It seems to have everything else. Is this an oversight in the
spec?
Correct, it doesn't have stroke styles other than gradients, patterns, and
solid colours. It was an intentional omission since it was not considered
a high-use feature. (Similarly, text is not available in Canvas; you have
to overlay HTML if you want to mix text with the graphics.)
