What's the difference between Canvas and WebGL?

Question

I'm thinking about using CAAT as a part of a HTML5 game engine. One of it's features is the ability to render to Canvas and WebGL without changing anything in the client code. That is a good thing, but I haven't found precisely: what are the differences between those two technologies?

I would specially like to know the differences of Canvas and WebGL in the following regards:

• Framerate
• Desktop browser support
• Mobile browser support
• Futureproofability (TM)

Answer 1

1) Framerate varies by browser. Some still do not support accelerated canvas rendering, others don't support WebGL at all. Best bet is to profile actual code on actual target hardware/browsers.

2) WebGL is not supported by IE, probably never will be. WebGL support is often blacklisted on machines with older hardware or drivers where canvas should still work. WebGL is not a technology you should bet a commercial venture on at this time. (Note that I have shipped a commercial WebGL game; WebGL support issues were a huge problem.)

3) Almost no mobile browsers in the wild support WebGL. They almost all support canvas.

4) Cnavas is around to stay. So is WebGL. Neither is more future proof than the other.