[editorial] Consider if there's a much better name for "image copies" #4573
Description
The term "image copy"/"ImageCopy" is used to describe buffer<->texture copies - copies from linear memory to non-linear (texture) memory.
| Current name | Used in |
|---|---|
GPUImageDataLayout |
writeTexture |
GPUImageCopyBuffer |
T2B, B2T |
GPUImageCopyTexture |
T2B, B2T, T2T |
GPUImageCopyTextureTagged |
copyExternalImageToTexture |
GPUImageCopyExternalImage |
copyExternalImageToTexture |
GPUImageCopyExternalImageSource |
member of ^ dictionary |
But the term "image" is quite overloaded in this domain: Vulkan VkImage, JS new Image(), HTML image, ....
We use these terms in the WebIDL, but only in dictionary names, which we can change without breaking the JS API. However, other language bindings need to put this name in their APIs, so I'd like to consider if we can come up with a better name now, and if it's worth some ecosystem churn to do so (webgpu.h/dawn/wgpu/wgpu-native/emscripten, typescript types, other bindings).
EDIT: We do use the term "image" in rowsPerImage however it's really not clear whether they're referring to the same concept. That was the intent, but it doesn't make a ton of sense.