[Sugar-devel] Meeting about HTML activities

[lionel at olpc-france.org]

Hi Simon,

> I am interested in performance of the HTML5 native apps. There are 
> quotes like [1] that states that HTML5 sucks for a system and the fact 
> that Facebook switched to a native Android app instead of their HTML5 
> one because of performance issues [2][3], I think those do not directly 
> implicate that HTML5 in general is slow: it sounds merely to the facts 
> of bad coding [4] or because on relying on connectivity for the app 
> (turning a web site into an app).
>
> But we should compare the performance of the underlying backends and 
>check which technologies can be used for the tasks at hand, e.g. a 
>drawing activity like Paint [5], do we need acceleration to get good 
> results for drawing curves for example.

Just for information, in my HTML5 Activity Foodchain [1], I'm using an HTML5
Canvas in an arcade game (a frog should eat some moving flies).
Because I would like that the game could work on a XO-1, I've done some
performance testing.
On the XO-1, the game is slow at the highest level (1 frog, 3 flies and 2
snakes) but stay playable.
In fact, I've just limited the number of animation (number of moves by fly)
to avoid a too important Canvas refresh.

So my conclusion is that, at least for basic games, like my one HTML5
performance seems to be acceptable.

Just my 2 cents.

	Lionel.