utility crate: requestAnimationFrame

[fitzgen]

We should have an idiomatic Rust utility crate for working with

• a single requestAnimationFrame
• a requestAnimationFrame loop (reusing the same function)
• debouncing requestAnimationFrames
• requested animation frames should be cancel-able via https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Window/cancelAnimationFrame

[Pauan]

A couple more things which I think would be useful:

• For performance reasons, it's probably faster to use a single rAF and then use a Rust VecDeque to support multiple listeners. I've used this strategy in dominator, and I can explain in more detail if needed.

• rAF is an API which works excellently with my futures-signals crate.

  For example, dominator has an API called timestamps() which returns a Signal of timestamps (which automatically updates every 60 FPS, by using rAF).

  Of course it supports automatic cancellation and automatic frame dropping, which makes it ideal for silky-smooth synchronized animations.

The above was pioneered by dominator, but it is absolutely not tied to dominator at all, so it can easily be put into a separate crate.

[fitzgen]

@Pauan are you interested in making a strawman API proposal / draft PR for some of this?

[fitzgen]

FWIW, when I said "debouncing rAF", this is the kind of thing I was thinking of: https://github.com/fitzgen/dodrio/blob/master/src/vdom.rs#L599-L625

[Aloso]

@fitzgen I don't think that dodrio::VdomWeak::render uses debouncing. If I understand it correctly, you want an API for requesting animation frames that returns a Future or a Stream.

I'd like to give this a try. Here's my design idea:

Low-level API

use gloo::ani_frames::Animation;

let af: AnimationIndex<_> = Animation::request_frame(|| { ... });
Animation::cancel_frame(af);

Higher-level API

struct T; // zero-sized type to distinguish animations

// create and start a requestAnimationFrame() loop!
// use Animation::<T>::paused() if you don't want to start it
let mut ani = Animation::<T>::new();

// add closure that is executed on every frame:
ani.add(|state| { ... });

// closures can be removed (only once, because AnimationIndex isn't Copy):
let index: AnimationIndex<T> = ani.add(|_| { ... });
ani.remove(index);

ani.pause();  // pauses the animation loop, using cancelAnimationFrame()
ani.once();   // requests one frame, if it's paused
ani.start();  // starts the animation loop, if it's paused

std::mem::drop(ani); // cancels the animation
// or
ani.forget(); // leaks the memory

Higher-level API using futures

struct T;

let mut ani: AnimationStream<T, &AnimationState> = Animation::stream(); // or paused_stream()

// add closure that is executed on every frame:
ani.add(|state| { ... });
// or
let ani = ani.map(|state| { ... });

Please tell me what you think!

This is roughly how I would implement the higher-level API:

pub struct Animation<C> {
    state: AnimationState,
    next_index: AnimationIndex<C>,
    callbacks: Vec<(AnimationIndex<C>, Box<dyn FnMut(AnimationState)>)>,
    // this could be done with a HashMap, but I think we want deterministic iteration order
}

pub enum AnimationState {
    Paused,
    Running(i64),
    RunningOnce(i64),
}

pub struct AnimationIndex<C> {
    index: i64,
    _marker: PhantomData<C>,
}

[fitzgen]

@fitzgen I don't think that dodrio::VdomWeak::render uses debouncing. If I understand it correctly, you want an API for requesting animation frames that returns a Future or a Stream.

If there is not an existing promise, then an animation frame is scheduled that will resolve the promise, and the promise is saved. If there is an existing promise, then it is re-used and no new animation frame is scheduled. Thus the requestAnimationFrame calls are "debounced" or "de-duplicated" or "reused"; whatever you want to call it.

[fitzgen]

For the low-level API, I would expect something very similar to the gloo_events API that we have a WIP PR for. That is:

• Takes a callback (like what you've sketched out)
• Returns an RAII type that
  • automatically cancels the animation frame on drop (not a separate static method, unlike what you've sketched out)
  • Has a forget method to make it uncancelable

struct T; // zero-sized type to distinguish animations

Is this the state passed to each callback? Wait it seems like this is a separate AnimationState thing. Is that user-defined or provided by the library?

[Aloso]

Is this the state passed to each callback? Wait it seems like this is a separate AnimationState thing. Is that user-defined or provided by the library?

The state isn't user-defined, it's one of Paused, Running(i32) or RunningOnce(i32). I thought it might be useful to pass it to the callbacks.

The struct T is just a way to allow distinguish animations, so the following doesn't compile:

struct T;
struct U;

let mut first = Animation::<T>::new();
let mut second = Animation::<U>::new();

let ix = first.add(|_| { ... });
second.remove(ix); // expected AnimationIndex<U>, found AnimationIndex<T>

Instead of T and U, you could also write [(); 1] and [(); 2], or &() and &&().

I'm trying to implement the whole thing ATM and struggling with the borrow checker. I fear I'll have to use a Rc<Mutex<Animation>> in the loop.

Here is my helper function. It compiles, but when I try to use it, I get all sorts of errors because of 'static:

fn request_af<F: FnOnce() + 'static>(callback: F) -> i32 {
    web_sys::window().unwrap_throw()
        .request_animation_frame(Closure::once(callback).as_ref().unchecked_ref())
        .unwrap_throw()
}

[Pauan]

I fear I'll have to use a Rc<Mutex<Animation>> in the loop.

Yes, if you want looping in Rust, that is necessary.

If the looping is done in JS it isn't necessary, but then you need a local .js snippet.

Nit: it should be RefCell, not Mutex.

[ranile]

1. and 4. were implemented in #126