Dynamic geometry software, as a piece of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) software, is closely and deeply associated with mathematics, and is widely applied to mathematics teaching activities in primary and secondary schools. Meanwhile, web technology also has become an important technology for assisting education and teaching. This paper expounds a web-based dynamic geometry software development process, and analyses specific requirements regarding graphical application programming interface (API) required by dynamic geometry software. With experiments and comparison on the two different hypertext markup language (HTML) 5 graphical API technologies, i. e. , scalable vector graphics (SVG) and Canvas, on different apparatuses and browsers, we draw the conclusion that it is more suitable to adopt Canvas as the graphical API technology for the web-based dynamic geometry software, thus further proposed the principles and methods for an object-oriented Canvas design. The dynamic geometry software based on the newly-designed Canvas has technical advantages and educational value, well incorporating aesthetic education into mathematics education.

web, Canvas, dynamic geometry, subject tools