Re: connection ceremony for iframe postMessage communications

On Mon, Feb 13, 2012 at 12:57 PM, Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch> wrote:
> On Fri, 10 Feb 2012, John J Barton wrote:
>> >
>> > Why would the connectivity part of this be the hard part?
>>
>> Because the existing information on cross-domain iframe communications
>> is incomplete and written in terms few Web app developers understand,
>> the browser implementations are new and the error messages they emit are
>> puzzling. Solutions for same-domain cases don't work for cross-domain.
>> Async communications is hard to debug.
>
> I agree with your described problems, but I don't see the link between
> them and adding yet more features to the platform.

Oh, sorry, I answered the question you asked, rather than the one you
wanted to ask ;-)

"Why should the connectivity part be part of the platform?"

To simplify and thus encourage cross-domain application development as
a natural and powerful extension of the Web.

Multiple incompatible connection sequences exist and will naturally
arise. One may eventually dominate. The process will be long and
painful; the advantages of competition seem low. By pursuing a
standard connection we accelerate the process.

A different push-back would make sense to me: it's not yet time. By
having this discussion we put the possibility on the table.  Already
I've learned how to use the MessageChannel solution and that
webintents could be another consumer of this connection layer.  Maybe
there should be no next steps for now.

jjb


>
> The solution to "existing information on cross-domain iframe
> communications is incomplete" is to add more information. The solution to
> "existing information on cross-domain iframe communications is written in
> terms few Web app developers understand" is to write new information. The
> solution to "the browser implementations are new" is to wait. The solution
> to "the error messages they emit are puzzling" is to file bugs on the
> browsers with suggestions for how to improve them. Etc.
>
> --
> Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
> http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
> Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'

Received on Monday, 13 February 2012 21:35:57 UTC