Re: Comments on AudioWorklet examples

Hi Hongchan,

You replied privately to me -- I'm CCing the group on this response since
it feels like we're just continuing the same thread that's of interest to
everyone, which I hope is OK.


> If we are only seeking the functionality of API design, the initialization
> or the visibility should not be an issue at all. We can be as explicit and
> verbose as possible (whichever you want to crack this down - subclassing,
> another main thread registration). However, I would like us to spend more
> time to make the structure concise and intuitive, rather than tossing the
> burden of complexity to developers. This is me being hand-wavy, but hope
> you can agree with this.
>

I totally like intuitive and concise. I also think that developers creating
custom nodes will be pleased to wrap an AudioWN in their own nodes to hide
the "workletness". But I think we can have it both ways without sacrificing
anything good.

Maybe we just need to talk this through on tomorrow's call!


> > This class is defined, registered and instantiated on the audio thread.
>
> This is not true. The instantiation happens on the main thread. (even for
> regular audio nodes) Only `process()` method runs on the audio thread. I
> guess this was the point of confusion and I am glad you raised the
> question. I think we definitely have more to think about.
>

I was talking about AudioWorkletProcessor instantiation, not
AudioWorkletNodes, just making sure.

This is big news to me (if I understand correctly). And, actually, good
news. So AudioWorkletProcessors (not Nodes) are instantiated on the main
thread, but in a special global scope? I guess that would resolve this
issue I'm having with exposing parameters right after instantiation. That
means that when you synchronously create an Node, the Processor can also be
created synchronously (and its param descriptors examined) before the Node
is handed back.

My misunderstanding shows that there is lots of room for interpretation in
these examples, I guess.


> > If we want these parameters to be instantly visible on a synchronously
> instantiated AudioWorkletNode of the corresponding kind, then param
> descriptors must be noted at the time that the Processor is registered (by
> calling registerAudioWorkletProcessor) and communicated back to somewhere
> that is immediately accessible from the main thread.
>
> I am not sure why the param descriptors must be available at the time of
> registration. Like I mentioned above, the instantiation should happen on
> the main thread. So after the construction of an AWN, the parameters
> within will be available immediately.
>

I was thinking that at least one AWP (not an AWN) had to be constructed in
advance, in order to determine the param descriptors. But if an AWP can be
instantiated synchronously with the construction of its corresponding AWN,
then the problem I've been describing goes away.

...Joe