# web

the browser as a platform: what its graphics, media, and network layers
actually do, measured from inside a page.

these notes are about browser behaviour itself. patterns for building services
live in [systems/](../systems/), and shipping them in
[operations/](../operations/).

## topics

### graphics

- [webgl-shader-linking](./graphics/webgl-shader-linking.md) — linking is
  synchronous unless you poll for it; only chromium caches linked programs
- [webgl-drawing-buffer-copies](./graphics/webgl-drawing-buffer-copies.md) —
  an `alpha: false` canvas is RGB, and a copy may not ask for more than that
- [webgl-call-instrumentation](./graphics/webgl-call-instrumentation.md) —
  count and attribute GL calls by wrapping the context prototype; firefox
  stops warning after 32
- [canvas-2d-glow](./graphics/canvas-2d-glow.md) — `shadowBlur` costs 2 ms in
  one engine and 73 ms in another; cached sprites are flat, and overlapping
  translucency needs a bounded layer
- [godot-web-exports](./graphics/godot-web-exports.md) — batching versus
  culling, startup shader links, mesh reads as GPU readbacks, engine-owned
  console warnings, and the engine binary as the memory floor

### media

- [media-time-and-decoded-time](./media/media-time-and-decoded-time.md) — a
  media element's clock and `decodeAudioData`'s samples disagree, by a
  different amount in each browser and after each seek
- [mediarecorder-containers](./media/mediarecorder-containers.md) — each
  browser records something different, and a bare `audio/mp4` can hold opus
  that safari will not play

### mobile

- [home-screen-web-app-scope](./mobile/home-screen-web-app-scope.md) — without
  a manifest the installing page decides the scope, and the home link can land
  outside it
- [ios-input-zoom](./mobile/ios-input-zoom.md) — inputs under 16px zoom the
  page, and `font: inherit` quietly undoes the fix
- [webkit-page-memory](./mobile/webkit-page-memory.md) — a killed page reloads
  while a lost GPU leaves a black canvas; compiled wasm costs several times its size,
  and embedded frames share the page's process

### network

- [cors-modes-and-the-http-cache](./cors-modes-and-the-http-cache.md) —
  one URL fetched in two CORS modes shares one cache entry unless the server
  varies on origin for every response