Re: Using ArrayBuffer as payload for binary data to/from Web Workers

On Mon, Mar 7, 2011 at 6:17 PM, Kenneth Russell <kbr@google.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 7, 2011 at 5:18 PM, Chris Marrin <cmarrin@apple.com> wrote:
>>
>> On Mar 7, 2011, at 4:46 PM, Kenneth Russell wrote:
>>
>>> On Mon, Mar 7, 2011 at 3:54 PM, Glenn Maynard <glenn@zewt.org> wrote:
>>>> On Mon, Mar 7, 2011 at 6:05 PM, Chris Marrin <cmarrin@apple.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Now that ArrayBuffer has made its way into XHR, I think it would be
>>>>> reasonable to somehow use this new object type as a way to pass data to and
>>>>> from Workers without copying. I've seen hints and thoughts about this here
>>>>> and there, but I've never seen a formal discussion. I'm not even sure if
>>>>> webapps is the place for this discussion, although it seems like a
>>>>> reasonable place. Please let me know if there is a better place.
>>>>
>>>> ArrayBuffer is the most obvious use for zero-copy messaging, but I don't
>>>> think it should be limited to it...
>>>>
>>>>> Has there been discussion anywhere that I've missed?
>>>>
>>>> Probably not the only one, but check the "WebWorkers and images" thread on
>>>> whatwg.
>>>
>>> There's definitely interest among the editors of the Typed Array spec
>>> in revising the spec to support zero-copy data transfers to and from
>>> web workers. In informal offline discussions, there was a tentative
>>> plan to put up a new draft for discussion within the next month or so.
>>> A goal was to prototype it before solidifying a spec so that we can be
>>> assured it will work well for real-world use cases.
>>
>> Yeah, I guess the question is whether we should put the functionality into ArrayBuffer, or into a wrapper class which would part of the Web Worker spec. The latter might make it easier to add other resources (like image and canvas) at some point. But I agree, it should be implemented before finalizing anything.
>>
>> Did I hear you volunteer to add a strawman proposal to the Typed Array spec? :-)
>
> Yes, you did. :-)

The editors' draft of the typed array spec has been updated with a
strawman proposal for this zero-copy, transfer-of-ownership behavior:

http://www.khronos.org/registry/typedarray/specs/latest/

Feedback would be greatly appreciated. For the purposes of keeping the
conversation centralized, it might be helpful if we could use the
public_webgl list; see
https://www.khronos.org/webgl/public-mailing-list/ .

Thanks,

-Ken

Received on Saturday, 23 April 2011 01:27:09 UTC