Progress Being Made On New "WebGPU" Web Graphics API

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Progress Being Made On New "WebGPU" Web Graphics API

There continues to be progress made on the new Apple/W3C backed web graphics API dubbed "WebGPU" that has the backing of major stakeholders...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...ebGPU-Progress

[Brisse]

"Among recent work is Apple working on designing a "secure shading language" and Mozilla working on a lot of code. Mozilla has made progress on a Direct3D 12 back-end as well as OpenGL support."

It saddens me that Mozilla has such focus on Windows. I know that's where their majority of users are, but d3d12, really?

[uid313]

The JavaScript API surface is getting bigger and bigger.
The importance of the NoScript web browser extension is steadily increasing.

[franglais125]

uid313 https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo.../releasenotes/ Finally date/time input for you!

[uid313]

uid313 https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo.../releasenotes/ Finally date/time input for you!

Yes, I've been looking forward to input type=date and type=time support for a very long time!
This is really great for web developers who can code up this very simply and don't have to rely on third-party JavaScript components, and use the platforms native widgets for picking time and dates.
It is great for Firefox users to be able to easily use websites that weren't easy to use without Chrome and Edge before.

However by default Firefox does not respect the user's locale settings.
This is a problem for us who lives outside the US but still prefers to use our software in the English language, then Firefox date formats are American like 18/07/2017 (dd/mm/yyyy) with 12-h AM/PM time instead of what many of us Europeans are accustomed to which is yyyy-mm-dd an 24-h clock.
So I have to open about:config and set "intl.regional_prefs.use_os_locales" to true.
After setting that key then Firefox respects the locale that the user configured in the operating system which allows you to have Firefox UI in English language but dates and times presented in the locale used in your country.

Other things I miss in Firefox:

• The "system-ui" font-family.
• Support for the <dialog> element.

[Staffan]

"Secure"
Yeah right. Javascript was supposedly secure too but has been riddled with holes. This is just another huge vector for causing all kinds of havoc. Downloading content from internet that is run directly on your hardware is bound to be a disaster. Please stop this insanity!

[franglais125]

This is a problem for us who lives outside the US but still prefers to use our software in the English language, then Firefox date formats are American like 18/07/2017 (dd/mm/yyyy) with 12-h AM/PM time instead of what many of us Europeans are accustomed to which is yyyy-mm-dd an 24-h clock.

Ah, yes, I'm Canadian and find the dd/mm/yyyy an utterly stupid system. In fact, the whole American system should **upgrade** to the metric system, please.

Edit: Even worse is the mm/dd/yyyy

[schmidtbag]

Though I have no problem with these features being added, we're starting to reach a point where we'll need 2 versions of each web browser: a slim version (that has everything you need to browse 99.9% of the WWW) and a full-featured version that offers things like WebGL, built-in PDF readers, developer tools, etc.

"Among recent work is Apple working on designing a "secure shading language" and Mozilla working on a lot of code. Mozilla has made progress on a Direct3D 12 back-end as well as OpenGL support."

It saddens me that Mozilla has such focus on Windows. I know that's where their majority of users are, but d3d12, really?

I don't really get it either. Pretty much the sole purpose of making web apps is because they're platform agnostic. So if the feature is only focused on Windows, then why not just make a Windows binary?

Ah, yes, I'm Canadian and find the dd/mm/yyyy an utterly stupid system. In fact, the whole American system should **upgrade** to the metric system, please.

Edit: Even worse is the mm/dd/yyyy

As an American, I feel yyyy/mm/dd is by far the best system. Easy to sort, logical, and not any harder to read than any other date format.
Also, since when are dates "metric"? I find it funny and hypocritical when other countries (especially British colonies and EU countries) get all huffy about Americans not using metric, when they themselves are not 100% metric. Every single time I have been challenged on this, I have found an online store or an industry within that country that uses non-metric units (where a metric alternative is available). I've found farmers, LCD displays, and cookbooks are the most common sources of a "metric country" that still uses non-metric units.

So - until a country can prove to be 100% metric, they can't rightfully demand Americans to switch. I fully agree the US needs to switch and that metric is far superior, but, I don't accept criticisms from hypocrites.

[Maxjen]

"Among recent work is Apple working on designing a "secure shading language" and Mozilla working on a lot of code. Mozilla has made progress on a Direct3D 12 back-end as well as OpenGL support."

It saddens me that Mozilla has such focus on Windows. I know that's where their majority of users are, but d3d12, really?

A graphics API for the web needs to be backend agnostic, that's why they need to make sure that it can also be implemented on top of e.g. DirectX12 and Metal. The prototype Mozilla is working on is implemented on top of gfx which is a graphics abstraction library that is as low-level as possible, while still supporting different backends for all the major graphics APIs. And as far as I know its most mature backend is Vulkan, so no need to worry that Mozilla is to Windows focused.

[franglais125]

Also, since when are dates "metric"?

Yeah, I of course didn't mean to say that the dates are "metric", but I'm simply conflating the American way of using dates with the non-metric units, as it seems to be the worst offender on both counts. Since we were talking about it, I simply added the metric part.

I find it funny and hypocritical when other countries (especially British colonies and EU countries) get all huffy about Americans not using metric, when they themselves are not 100% metric. Every single time I have been challenged on this, I have found an online store or an industry within that country that uses non-metric units (where a metric alternative is available). I've found farmers, LCD displays, and cookbooks are the most common sources of a "metric country" that still uses non-metric units.

So - until a country can prove to be 100% metric, they can't rightfully demand Americans to switch. I fully agree the US needs to switch and that metric is far superior, but, I don't accept criticisms from hypocrites.

I understand your point of view, as I have always wished for (e.g.) screen sizes to be displayed in meters / cm where appropriate. I just can't wrap my head around how big something is in inches. I sort of got used to how big a 5-inch screen "feels" thanks to my phone, but I can't grasp the size of things (same goes for my laptop).
The problem with demanding that countries fully switch to a metric system is precisely that the American market being so large and innovative when it comes to technology that these units get "exported" everywhere.

For instance, Apple sells a 4-inch iPhone in the US, and it gets sold everywhere as such. I have always hated this (not Apple or the iPhone, this is just an example!).