There was a problem in my code in my two js1k entries for this year (this and this). They weren’t showing the bee’s wings in latest Chrome - that I installed just today - and it was reported of having other problems in Firefox nightly. Note that by the time you read this, the organizer of js1k might have updated the code with my bug-fix and it might look right again.

So what was the problem? For js1k size coding, it is very common to try to save every single byte/character as possible, even if it results in ugly and/or unreadable code. One of the ways to do it is by placing code inside function calls without parameters, just to avoid the use an additional semicolon. So I had this:

a.fill( /* some code here */ );

With a being a Canvas 2D Context. So, why it is not working on the latest browsers right? The reason is simple: Canvas 2D Context spec is just a working draft, the draft changed and the new browsers are adapting to it.

Previous, the fill method had a single functionality, and no parameters. Now fill accepts an optional path parameter. Without parameters it works as previously, with parameters it doesn’t.

So, the bug-fix was easy; just to place the code inside fill outside it. I believe this problem will be happening in more than one js1k entries, as it is a very common size optimization.