Re: Need to: "preload" CSS and JS

On Mon, 20 Dec 2010, Kyle Simpson wrote:
> >
> > IE has, for a long time, supported a "preloading" behavior on the 
> > <script> element itself. IE will begin downloading a resource once a 
> > dynamic script element's `src` attribute is set, but it will not 
> > execute that script (even once it finishes downloading) until after 
> > the script element has been directly appended to the DOM. In that way, 
> > a script can be "preloaded" by creating a script element but not 
> > appending it to the DOM, and then it can later be executed on-demand 
> > by appending it to the DOM.
> > 
> > The `readyState` technique would probably be useful for this overall 
> > use-case (even for CSS if extended to the <link> tag as well), if it 
> > were standardized and available in all the browsers.
> 
> HTML Spec, 4.3.1, 'Running a script' algorithm
> http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/scripting-1.html#running-a-script
> 
> Specifically, in step 12 (which is about fetching a `src` URL):
> 
> "For performance reasons, user agents may start fetching the script as soon as
> the attribute is set, instead, in the hope that the element will be inserted
> into the document. Either way, once the element is inserted into the document,
> the load must have started. If the UA performs such prefetching, but the
> element is never inserted in the document, or the src attribute is dynamically
> changed, then the user agent will not execute the script, and the fetching
> process will have been effectively wasted."
> 
> This seems to be the spec stating that browsers may do what IE's behavior on
> scripts does, which is to start fetching the resource once the `src` property
> is set, but not execute it until the script element is inserted into the DOM.
> 
> It would seem then that browsers could/should be petitioned to consider
> implementing this suggestion, perhaps taking the `readyState` implementation
> from IE as guidance.
> 
> The above wording, without guidance on how to detect the state (such as, with
> `readyState`) is not overly useful to a developer for the "preloading"
> use-case. But if an author can determine that the "preload" has finished by
> examining a `readyState` property, then a resource loader can use that for the
> use-case very effectively.
> 
> Would the spec consider adding wording to this section to codify how IE's
> `readyState` behaves in this circumstance?

Could you clarify what use case you have in mind here?

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
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Received on Thursday, 28 April 2011 22:05:13 UTC