dotted stroke in <canvas>

Fun question! I've written a custom implementation of dashed lines; you can try it out here. I took the route of Adobe Illustrator and allow you to specify an array of dash/gap lengths.

For stackoverflow posterity, here's my implementation (slightly altered for s/o line widths):

var CP = window.CanvasRenderingContext2D && CanvasRenderingContext2D.prototype;
if (CP && CP.lineTo){
  CP.dashedLine = function(x,y,x2,y2,dashArray){
    if (!dashArray) dashArray=[10,5];
    if (dashLength==0) dashLength = 0.001; // Hack for Safari
    var dashCount = dashArray.length;
    this.moveTo(x, y);
    var dx = (x2-x), dy = (y2-y);
    var slope = dx ? dy/dx : 1e15;
    var distRemaining = Math.sqrt( dx*dx + dy*dy );
    var dashIndex=0, draw=true;
    while (distRemaining>=0.1){
      var dashLength = dashArray[dashIndex++%dashCount];
      if (dashLength > distRemaining) dashLength = distRemaining;
      var xStep = Math.sqrt( dashLength*dashLength / (1 + slope*slope) );
      if (dx<0) xStep = -xStep;
      x += xStep
      y += slope*xStep;
      this[draw ? 'lineTo' : 'moveTo'](x,y);
      distRemaining -= dashLength;
      draw = !draw;
    }
  }
}

To draw a line from 20,150 to 170,10 with dashes that are 30px long followed by a gap of 10px, you would use:

myContext.dashedLine(20,150,170,10,[30,10]);

To draw alternating dashes and dots, use (for example):

myContext.lineCap   = 'round';
myContext.lineWidth = 4; // Lines 4px wide, dots of diameter 4
myContext.dashedLine(20,150,170,10,[30,10,0,10]);

The "very short" dash length of 0 combined with the rounded lineCap results in dots along your line.

If anyone knows of a way to access the current point of a canvas context path, I'd love to know about it, as it would allow me to write this as ctx.dashTo(x,y,dashes) instead of requiring you to re-specify the start point in the method call.

This simplified version of Phrogz's code utilises the built-in transformation functionality of Canvas and also handles special cases e.g. when dx = 0

var CP = window.CanvasRenderingContext2D && CanvasRenderingContext2D.prototype;
if (CP.lineTo) {
    CP.dashedLine = function(x, y, x2, y2, da) {
        if (!da) da = [10,5];
        this.save();
        var dx = (x2-x), dy = (y2-y);
        var len = Math.sqrt(dx*dx + dy*dy);
        var rot = Math.atan2(dy, dx);
        this.translate(x, y);
        this.moveTo(0, 0);
        this.rotate(rot);       
        var dc = da.length;
        var di = 0, draw = true;
        x = 0;
        while (len > x) {
            x += da[di++ % dc];
            if (x > len) x = len;
            draw ? this.lineTo(x, 0): this.moveTo(x, 0);
            draw = !draw;
        }       
        this.restore();
    }
}

I think my calculations are correct and it seems to render OK.

At the moment at least setLineDash([5,10]) works with Chrome and ctx.mozDash = [5,10] works with FF:

var c=document.getElementById("myCanvas");
var ctx=c.getContext("2d");

if ( ctx.setLineDash !== undefined )   ctx.setLineDash([5,10]);
if ( ctx.mozDash !== undefined )       ctx.mozDash = [5,10];

ctx.beginPath();              
ctx.lineWidth="2";
ctx.strokeStyle="green";
ctx.moveTo(0,75);
ctx.lineTo(250,75);
ctx.stroke();

Setting to null makes the line solid.

Phroz's solution is great. But when I used it in my application, I found two bugs.

Following code is debugged (and refactored for readability) version of Phroz's one.

// Fixed: Minus xStep bug (when x2 < x, original code bugs)
// Fixed: Vertical line bug (when abs(x - x2) is zero, original code bugs because of NaN)
var CP = window.CanvasRenderingContext2D && CanvasRenderingContext2D.prototype;
if(CP && CP.lineTo) CP.dashedLine = function(x, y, x2, y2, dashArray){
    if(! dashArray) dashArray=[10,5];
    var dashCount = dashArray.length;
    var dx = (x2 - x);
    var dy = (y2 - y);
    var xSlope = (Math.abs(dx) > Math.abs(dy));
    var slope = (xSlope) ? dy / dx : dx / dy;

    this.moveTo(x, y);
    var distRemaining = Math.sqrt(dx * dx + dy * dy);
    var dashIndex = 0;
    while(distRemaining >= 0.1){
        var dashLength = Math.min(distRemaining, dashArray[dashIndex % dashCount]);
        var step = Math.sqrt(dashLength * dashLength / (1 + slope * slope));
        if(xSlope){
            if(dx < 0) step = -step;
            x += step
            y += slope * step;
        }else{
            if(dy < 0) step = -step;
            x += slope * step;
            y += step;
        }
        this[(dashIndex % 2 == 0) ? 'lineTo' : 'moveTo'](x, y);
        distRemaining -= dashLength;
        dashIndex++;
    }
}

Mozilla has been working on an implementation of dashed stroking for canvas, so we may see it added to the spec in the near future.