Re: [WebIDL] Exceptions

On Wed, Jul 6, 2011 at 2:23 PM, Aryeh Gregor <Simetrical+w3c@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 6, 2011 at 7:06 AM, Anne van Kesteren <annevk@opera.com> wrote:
>> So with Web IDL going to Last Call does this mean that the exception model
>> outlined in http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=10623#c8 is the
>> way forward? I.e. we introduce new exception interfaces in DOM Core for all
>> the different exception types and update all other specifications that use
>> DOM Core to dispatch those exceptions instead (and they are somewhat
>> backwards compatible because they inherit from DOMException and therefore
>> still have the code member).
>>
>> I guess there is no particular rush on this; I am mainly wondering whether
>> other editors are aware of this change and agree with it.
>
> The thing I don't like about this proposal is that it encourages
> authors to use "e instanceof IndexSizeError" or similar.  This will
> work 98% of the time and then fail in an extremely mysterious way when
> multiple globals are involved.  All you need is the exception to be
> thrown by something in an iframe for whatever reason.
>
> Moreover, I don't even think behavior in that case is defined.  If I
> call foo.appendChild(bar) and it throws, is the exception from the
> window where the method was called, or the one foo is associated with,
> or the one bar is associated with?  Browsers other than Gecko seem to
> agree it's the one foo is associated with
> (<http://software.hixie.ch/utilities/js/live-dom-viewer/saved/1064>),
> and Gecko is just buggy, but is this specced anywhere?  I don't see it
> in DOM Core.
>
> I don't see why we need the extra classes.  What's the advantage over
> just adding the .name attribute, or something equivalent, and not
> adding new classes?  Just consistency with ES, or something else too?

This is indeed a good point. The main reason for me was consistency
with ES. But I'm not sure why ES was designed the way it is. Generally
it seems like multiple globals wasn't kept in mind a lot when ES was
designed, though obviously this is a problem for ES on the web.

Would love to hear from ES people that surely has spent more time
thinking about exceptions than me.

/ Jonas

Received on Thursday, 7 July 2011 00:06:47 UTC