[Web Workers API] Data synchronization

I have reviewed the draft specification dated 1/14 [1]. I am not sure  
about the status of this spec vis-a-vis this WG. Still, and without  
having reviewed any mailing list archives about prior discussion on  
this draft, here are some questions around the scope of this spec:

1. Are background workers executing outside the current browsing  
context completely out of consideration? As an implementor of sync  
engines and developer of applications that use them, Oracle's  
experience shows that trickle sync is the most usable approach and  
that in trickle sync an application doesn't need to be active for data  
to be moved back and forth.

2. Long running scripts pose a problem especially when script  
containers leak memory over time.  Is it giving too much freedom to  
workers to run as long as they wish and use as many network/memory  
resources as they wish?

3. On devices which do not like background processes making continuous  
use of CPU/network resources (such as iPhone and BlackBerry). how can  
one take advantage of native notification services to provide up-to- 
date information at a low enough resource cost?

4. Why is the spec biased towards those implementors who would like to  
persist synchronization results and application data in the structured/ 
local storage only? Why not consider needs of those who would prefer  
to keep their data accessible directly through HTTP/S, even in the  
disconnected case?

I hope to hear the opinion of those on this ML that are interested in  
WebWorkers. I look forward also to discussing this spec in the WebApps  
WG, when it officially gets added to its charter.

Cheers,
Nikunj

[1] http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-workers/current-work/ retrieved on  
Jan 16, 09

Received on Saturday, 17 January 2009 01:18:59 UTC