Re: [FileAPI] Why is FileList a sequence?

On Tue, 08 Mar 2011 19:47:47 +0100, Arun Ranganathan <arun@mozilla.com>  
wrote:

> On 1/31/11 11:04 AM, Simon Pieters wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Why is FileList defined as
>>
>>      typedef sequence<File> FileList;
>>
>> rather than as an interface similar to NodeList? It seems that in Gecko  
>> and WebKit FileList is more like NodeList than as a sequence.
>>
>
> (In the process of going through feedback to prepare FileAPI for Last  
> Call Status, I realize I overlooked this message.  My apologies for  
> that.)
>
> So this goes back to the earliest versions of the specification, when  
> WebIDL itself was in flux.  Sequence parametrized types were considered  
> a superior choice owing to having a lot of the hard work of defining  
> these kinds of datatypes "in-built", and I was urged by Hixie and others  
> to adopt it for FileList.  I *originally* had NodeList (or something  
> else akin to the classic array model -- can't remember now :) ).
>
> Do you disagree that FileList should be a sequence parametrized type?   
> Would you rather I revert back to earlier WebIDL constructs?  I'm happy  
> to do so, *especially* if these stand as LC blockers for any  
> implementer, but I personally don't feel a lot of reason to change it,  
> since I think WebIDL accounts for the FileList use case.  Do you  
> disagree strongly?
>
> Other tasks remain before LC, obviously -- notably, an event queue  
> overhaul of the spec. to make it closer to what HTML5 does -- but I've  
> continued to update the Editor's Draft:
>
> http://dev.w3.org/2006/webapi/FileAPI/

Personally I don't think one is more superior than the other. However, I  
will note that Opera has implemented (but not shipped yet) NodeList-like  
FileList. That makes three browsers that implement NodeList-like, and none  
that follow the spec. It seems easier to change the spec than to change  
the implementations.

-- 
Simon Pieters
Opera Software

Received on Tuesday, 8 March 2011 19:10:16 UTC