SceneGraph.js

JavaScript implementation of a Scene Graph (a.k.a. display list) targeting HTML5 canvas rendering.

Why?

• HTML5 canvas doesn't have a build-in hierarchy tree.
• JavaScript engines are getting faster each day and HTML canvas is starting to be hardware accelerated in some browsers, which means it could potentially be fast enough for complex interactions.

Goals / Desired Features

• Translate, rotate, scale elements at runtime (bitmap and/or vectors).
• Add/remove/swap "nodes" at runtime.
• Messaging system support (DOM2 Event or Signals).
• Individual event dispatching per element and bubbling (maybe without capturing phase).
• Clean API.
• Work similar to the DOM Tree and Flash DisplayList when it makes sense.
• Use same API as native canvas commands when it makes sense.
• Self-contained.
• Be fast but without compromising code structure/readability.
• Favor interfaces over inheritance.

Notes

This project is on a initial phase and things aren't really well defined yet, not even sure how far the development will go, still not sure if it will be really useful.

It should be a low-level API and fairly verbose, don't expect it to be anything similar to jQuery/prototype, features like chaining, retrieving elements by id/class probably won't be implemented, the code/API style should be closer to AS3/Java than to Ruby/Python. It should follow the same kind of concepts of the Flash Display List and the DOM tree. The idea is to provide a core structure that later could be abstracted for specific uses if needed.