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

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? :-)

-----
~Chris
cmarrin@apple.com

Received on Tuesday, 8 March 2011 01:19:53 UTC