Re: Global variables and id lookup for elements

On Thu, 28 Apr 2011, Magnus Kristiansen wrote:
> 
> Context: http://krijnhoetmer.nl/irc-logs/whatwg/20110428#l-707
> 
> Current browsers disagree about how to handle <div 
> id=x></div><script>var x;</script>. Webkit browsers leave x pointing to 
> the div, whereas IE, Firefox and Opera make x undefined [1]. (There is 
> content that depends on x being undefined, but I don't have any links 
> handy right now.)
> 
> My reading of the relevant specs (es5 section 10, WebIDL 4.5.3, HTML 
> 6.2.4) supports the Webkit behavior. To summarize, a property x is 
> defined on the global object pointing to the element before the script 
> block, and when the script block is parsed for variable declarations 
> there's already an x defined and therefore the variable is not 
> initialized to undefined. I therefore propose a spec change is in order.
> 
> jgraham summarized the wanted behavior neatly as "id lookup should 
> happen after all other property resolution". Conceptually I think this 
> is like saying that the global environment actually has an outer 
> environment, and this outer environment contains the properties for 
> element lookups (which are currently defined on the global object). 
> Another proposal was to say that properties for element lookup are 
> special and should get overwritten in 10.8.c. Other, better options may 
> also exist.
> 
> Open question: Should this be defined directly in HTML, or should WebIDL 
> define it and let HTML annotate Window to enable the necessary 
> exceptional behavior? My initial take was that since both id lookup and 
> window=global is defined in HTML it would fit best there, but it also 
> makes sense to contain finicky DOM-ES interactions to WebIDL.
> 
> [1] http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=80591

On Thu, 28 Apr 2011, Boris Zbarsky wrote:
> On 4/28/11 4:31 PM, Magnus Kristiansen wrote:
> > Current browsers disagree about how to handle <div 
> > id=x></div><script>var x;</script>. Webkit browsers leave x pointing 
> > to the div, whereas IE, Firefox and Opera make x undefined [1]. (There 
> > is content that depends on x being undefined, but I don't have any 
> > links handy right now.)
> > 
> > My reading of the relevant specs (es5 section 10, WebIDL 4.5.3, HTML 
> > 6.2.4) supports the Webkit behavior. To summarize, a property x is 
> > defined on the global object pointing to the element before the script 
> > block, and when the script block is parsed for variable declarations 
> > there's already an x defined and therefore the variable is not 
> > initialized to undefined. I therefore propose a spec change is in 
> > order.
> 
> I believe this is correct.  For what it's worth, I discussed this with 
> Cameron recently, and he felt that this is something that should just be 
> defined as a one-off in the spec defining Window, not in WebIDL itself.
> 
> That is, Window should not be using a name getter.
> 
> > jgraham summarized the wanted behavior neatly as "id lookup should 
> > happen after all other property resolution". Conceptually I think this 
> > is like saying that the global environment actually has an outer 
> > environment, and this outer environment contains the properties for 
> > element lookups (which are currently defined on the global object). 
> > Another proposal was to say that properties for element lookup are 
> > special and should get overwritten in 10.8.c. Other, better options 
> > may also exist.
> 
> For what it's worth, the way Gecko implements this is by inserting an 
> object into the prototype chain of the Window that handles these 
> property gets.  This means that |var| (which defines a prop on the 
> Window itself) will always shadow the named props, which is the behavior 
> you observe.
> 
> There's some complexity due to the fact that the properties should only 
> exist on that prototype if they're not anywhere else on the proto chain, 
> but that's already there in the non-OverrideBuiltins name getter case.
> 
> > Open question: Should this be defined directly in HTML, or should 
> > WebIDL define it and let HTML annotate Window to enable the necessary 
> > exceptional behavior?
> 
> I think I agree with Cameron that it should be defined in HTML (or 
> whatever spec defines Window).
> 
> > My initial take was that since both id lookup and window=global is 
> > defined in HTML it would fit best there, but it also makes sense to 
> > contain finicky DOM-ES interactions to WebIDL.
> 
> Reusable ones, yes.  I don't think anyone is proposing this behavior for 
> any other object, so it wouldn't be reusable anyway.

On Fri, 29 Apr 2011, Cameron McCormack wrote:
> Boris Zbarsky:
> > For what it's worth, the way Gecko implements this is by inserting an 
> > object into the prototype chain of the Window that handles these 
> > property gets.  This means that |var| (which defines a prop on the 
> > Window itself) will always shadow the named props, which is the 
> > behavior you observe.
> 
> If we solve the problem in this way, with an extra object in the 
> prototype chain, then this could be defined in HTML without any special 
> prose.
> 
>   [NoInterfaceObject]
>   interface WindowNames {
>     getter any (in DOMString name);
>   };
> 
>   interface Window : WindowNames {
>     ...
>   };

Is this still something I should do, or did this get resolved using 
another solution?

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'

Received on Tuesday, 19 July 2011 23:43:37 UTC