A requestAnimationFrame polyfill library for Node.js and browsers, enabling consistent animation timing.
raf is a JavaScript library that polyfills the requestAnimationFrame API, allowing developers to create smooth animations synchronized with the display's refresh rate in Node.js and browsers. It solves the problem of inconsistent or missing animation timing support across different environments, ensuring efficient rendering and preventing performance issues like layout thrashing.
Frontend developers building animations or visualizations that require precise timing, and Node.js developers needing animation-like timing for simulations or tools.
Developers choose raf for its spec-compliant, lightweight implementation that works seamlessly across platforms, eliminating the need to write environment-specific animation code. Its simplicity and reliability make it a trusted polyfill in the JavaScript ecosystem.
requestAnimationFrame polyfill library
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Works in Node.js and browsers, including older versions like IE9, ensuring animations run consistently across diverse environments without native support.
Follows W3C and MDN documentation closely, allowing seamless integration with existing code that uses native requestAnimationFrame and cancelAnimationFrame.
Provides only the essential polyfill without extra features, keeping the library small and focused on performance, as evidenced by its simple UMD bundle.
Includes a polyfill() method to automatically attach to global objects or custom instances, simplifying setup in non-standard or testing environments, as shown in the README.
Only implements basic requestAnimationFrame and cancelAnimationFrame; developers must handle all animation logic, which can be cumbersome for complex animations requiring sequencing or easing.
The polyfill() method modifies global objects like window, which might conflict with other libraries or require careful management in modular applications, risking unintended side-effects.
Version 1.0.0 removed stream/event emitter logic, forcing users to migrate to raf-stream for those features, indicating potential instability in major updates that could break existing code.