Adding Ajax

The Future of Graphics

Graphics are the last frontier of the web page, and thankfully, we're seeing considerable progress in what we can do as web developers. All browsers support at least a significant subset of CSS, and all browsers support at least one of the extended graphical libraries/objects. Unfortunately, not all browsers support all libraries. Firefox and Opera are the browsers with the most support, though WebKit promises much for Safari, and Microsoft has been making moves to bring IE more in line with the rest of the world.

Thanks to the inventiveness of folks, there is cross-browser library support for most of the graphics demonstrated in this chapter—support for effects beyond these relatively uncomplicated examples.

There are issues associated with using any of the graphics, not the least of which is that they're all "visual" elements and thus will be a not a useful addition to your site for those with some sight impairment. However, as demonstrated in the examples here, they could be fun and interesting additions to your existing applications, especially as visual charts of data that you're already providing in a text format. Most use is dependent on script, but again, if script is disabled, the effect isn't displayed and no functionality is lost.

As for the cross-browser differences, like those in the last example, if a browser doesn't implement the canvas object, nothing will show. However, the table with the text data will be present.

When used as a fun addition, ...