[webkit-dev] GlobalScript API.

[Patrick Mueller]

Patrick Mueller wrote:
> Dmitry Titov wrote:
> 
>>
>> Here is an actual API:
>> ---------------------------
>> Page-level API
>>
>> var globalScript = new webkitGlobalScript(name, url, loadHandler,
>> errorHandler);
> 
> I've mentioned before that this API turns out to be very similiar to the 
> serverJS notion of a "module".
> 
>     https://wiki.mozilla.org/ServerJS/Modules/SecurableModules
> 
> Differences are the name: require -> webkitGlobalScript; semantics about 
> sharing across pages (not relevant to the serverJS work); the "exports" 
> variable in the module which provides the reference to the globalScript 
> return value the client sees; and that this is async vs. serverJS's sync 
> model.
> 
> Of most interest is the notion of the "exports" variable.  Instead of 
> exposing the "global" scope of the global script itself as the return 
> value, you actually have to assign something to the exports variable 
> from within the global script for it to be available in the caller.  The 
> nice thing about this is that it provides a nice way to create private 
> references within your global script.

Another interesting aspect of this is that it easily allows a global 
script author to use some library without that library infecting the 
pages' (clients of the global scope) scopes.  For instance, one global 
script could pull in jQuery, another could pull in Prototype, or a 
different version of jQuery.  Since only properties specfically added to 
"exports" are available to pages' scopes, there's no negative 
interaction between jQuery and Prototype.  They live in the "globals" of 
each global script, which aren't visible to anyone else.

Of course, monkey patching is still a problem - or is it?  Does each 
page scope and global scope get it's own set of globals?  eg, only one 
Object object? I was thinking originally that you'd want to share built 
in globals like Object and Array, but now I don't see how that would be 
possible.

-- 
Patrick Mueller - http://muellerware.org