[WebIDL] Would it make sense to add annotations for "creates a new object each time" and "always returns the same object"?

Consider a method declaration like so:

   MyInterface getFoo();

It's impossible to tell from that IDL whether you get back the same 
object every time or whether the same object is returned each time, or 
whether it's sometimes the same and sometimes a new one.  Generally you 
have to rely on the prose to indicate that, and often the writers of the 
prose forget to do so.

In Gecko, we have found it useful to annotate methods and attributes 
with this sort of information (we use [Creator] for methods that always 
return a new object and we're about to add an annotation for attributes 
that always return the same object, but we haven't decided on a name for 
it yet).

Would it make sense to add such annotations to WebIDL so that this sort 
of thing doesn't have to be described in prose?

-Boris

Received on Thursday, 18 October 2012 14:11:45 UTC