[webkit-dev] GlobalScript in WebKit

[Drew Wilson]

Following up, I think this highlights the distinct set of use cases that
shared workers and shared script address:

SharedWorkers are a great platform for when you have a single database that
is shared across multiple instances of your web app, and you want to
coordinate updates to that database. I can imagine sharing a single
connection to the server, etc via SharedWorkers.

SharedScripts are a good platform for when you want to share data/code (for
example, the immense body of Javascript used to implement the Gmail UI)
across multiple windows. I can't speak to whether passing a hidden iframe
between windows as was suggested in the other thread would address this use
case sufficiently.

-atw

On Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 6:11 PM, Drew Wilson <atwilson at google.com> wrote:

> I believe that the offline gmail team uses the Gears flavor of shared
> workers and is planning to migrate to the HTML5 version once DB access is
> supported from within worker context in shipping browsers.
>
> So I guess that Gmail would be a candidate app that has asked for both.
>
> -atw
>
>
> On Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 6:08 PM, Maciej Stachowiak <mjs at apple.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> On Nov 30, 2009, at 3:43 PM, Dmitry Titov wrote:
>>
>>  I don't think it's correct to say that SharedWorkers are not useful and
>>> "we need a SharedScript instead". They are different things and can address
>>> different use cases. For example, SharedWorker is great to make sure there
>>> is only one 'app instance' running - exactly because it is shared
>>> inter-process, it can be used as a "inter-process synchronization primitive"
>>> to control how many app instances are opened. SharedScript is a container
>>> for data and code shared between pages that comprise a "web application" and
>>> normally run in the same process. As in native apps, whether or not multiple
>>> instances of the app can run at the same time depends on the author of the
>>> app, and can be done either way.
>>>
>>
>> Are there any Web apps at Google or elsewhere currently using
>> SharedWorker? Would any of them still use it if they could switch to
>> SharedScript? Has any app team specifically requested support for *both*
>> SharedWorker *and* SharedScript? (Serious questions, since the justification
>> for SharedScript is largely based on Web developer feedback.)
>>
>> Note: if SharedScript was really globally shared it could be used to
>> implement shared workers - simply have the SharedScript manage the per-app
>> Workers.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Maciej
>>
>>
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>>
>
>
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