[Prototype-core] Re: Thoughts on Namespacing Native APIs

2009-03-25 Thread Robert Kieffer

On Mar 24, 3:32 pm, Tobie Langel tobie.lan...@gmail.com wrote:
 Unfortunately, a number of environments do not support eval and
 decompiling function isn't part of any specification to date (nor
 planned in the near future).

 Best,

 Tobie

Hey Tobie, those objections are well and good, but they can be
addressed (see below).  I was hoping for feedback at a bit higher
level, on the overall idea.  For example, does spinning off the native
APIs into a separate library make sense?  Is there merit to the
resulting APIs (e.g. Does qip.String.endsWith(aString, substring)
work for you?)  What happens to the code if the APIs are made
optional?  ... that sort of thing.

As for your specific comments...

By decompiling I assume you mean Function#toString()?  It may not be
spec'ed, but that horse has already left the barn.  Prototype (both
stable and trunk) breaks on any platform where it's not supported  -
see Function#argumentNames().

As for eval(), that was simply a convenience to keep the sample code
compact, readable. Removing that dependency is trivial - we need only
do a bit more parsing of the function source, and use new Function()
instead.
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[Prototype-core] Re: Thoughts on Namespacing Native APIs

2009-03-25 Thread T.J. Crowder

Hi Robert,

For background, you might (if you haven't already) want to check out
these two threads from this group on this topic:

This short one:
http://groups.google.com/group/prototype-core/browse_thread/thread/d38f2123aa64eb0e/ac612b72cc060943

And this _rather_ more comprehensive one:
http://groups.google.com/group/prototype-core/browse_thread/thread/16d0517ecc605a00/c9cfe041c1da19de

FWIW,
--
T.J. Crowder
tj / crowder software / com


On Mar 25, 12:32 pm, Robert Kieffer bro...@gmail.com wrote:
 On Mar 24, 3:32 pm, Tobie Langel tobie.lan...@gmail.com wrote:

  Unfortunately, a number of environments do not support eval and
  decompiling function isn't part of any specification to date (nor
  planned in the near future).

  Best,

  Tobie

 Hey Tobie, those objections are well and good, but they can be
 addressed (see below).  I was hoping for feedback at a bit higher
 level, on the overall idea.  For example, does spinning off the native
 APIs into a separate library make sense?  Is there merit to the
 resulting APIs (e.g. Does qip.String.endsWith(aString, substring)
 work for you?)  What happens to the code if the APIs are made
 optional?  ... that sort of thing.

 As for your specific comments...

 By decompiling I assume you mean Function#toString()?  It may not be
 spec'ed, but that horse has already left the barn.  Prototype (both
 stable and trunk) breaks on any platform where it's not supported  -
 see Function#argumentNames().

 As for eval(), that was simply a convenience to keep the sample code
 compact, readable. Removing that dependency is trivial - we need only
 do a bit more parsing of the function source, and use new Function()
 instead.
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[Prototype-core] Re: Thoughts on Namespacing Native APIs

2009-03-25 Thread Tobie Langel



On Mar 25, 1:32 pm, Robert Kieffer bro...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hey Tobie, those objections are well and good, but they can be
 addressed (see below).  I was hoping for feedback at a bit higher
 level, on the overall idea.  For example, does spinning off the native
 APIs into a separate library make sense?  Is there merit to the
 resulting APIs (e.g. Does qip.String.endsWith(aString, substring)
 work for you?)  What happens to the code if the APIs are made
 optional?  ... that sort of thing.

I'm working on a couple of things remotely related to this. More on
this asap. That said, native object extensions is there to stay: it's
one of Prototype's biggest appeal (for example, that's the main reason
Prototype was included in Palm Mojo Application Framework).
Furthermore, namespacing issues, both for the global object and native
objects' prototypes, can be handled by sandboxing third party code
with Caja--which we'll fully support in the near future--with added
security as a bonus.

 By decompiling I assume you mean Function#toString()?  It may not be
 spec'ed, but that horse has already left the barn.  Prototype (both
 stable and trunk) breaks on any platform where it's not supported  -
 see Function#argumentNames().

For one, I'm a strong partisan of modifying our Class API (see a dummy
implementation proposal here: http://gist.github.com/43064) to remove
dependency on function decompiling.

Secondly, some platforms actually return sufficient information for
Function#argumentNames to work, while not truly decompiling the
function. That's the case of Caja, for example:

(function(foo, bar) { alert(foo + ' ' + bar) }).toString();
// - function(foo, bar} { [cajoled code] }

Last but not least, your solution won't be able to handle context
properly (which, btw, is one of the reasons function decompilation
isn't specified in ES).

Try this in your original pastie, for example (a bit contrived, but
you get the point):

var clear = (function() {
  var ZERO = 0;
  function clear(_this) {
_this.length = ZERO;
return _this;
  }
  return clear;
})();

// ... do the magick eval tricks
[1, 2, 3].clear();
// - ReferenceError: ZERO is not defined

 As for eval(), that was simply a convenience to keep the sample code
 compact, readable. Removing that dependency is trivial - we need only
 do a bit more parsing of the function source, and use new Function()
 instead.

Platforms which do not support eval obviously support neither new
Function, nor passing a string to setTimeout or setInterval, nor
dynamic script injection.

To summarize, if implementing this was trivial, I would have been done
a long time ago. Unfortunately, it's not!

Over the next few weeks, we'll be concentrating our efforts on
completing the documentation, releasing 1.6.1 and migrating to a
library-agnostic test harness which I'm currently busy working on.

The idea is to get the source code as clean and solid as possible for
Prototype 1.7 (Caja support) and 2.0 development. We can certainly
look at options to remove dependencies between different parts of
Prototype by then. (For example, I would love to see the ajax module
standalone).

Hope this clarifies my point.

Of course, if you're available to help out on our current issues,
you're more than welcomed to do so!

Best,

Tobie





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[Prototype-core] Re: Thoughts on Namespacing Native APIs

2009-03-24 Thread Tobie Langel

Unfortunately, a number of environments do not support eval and
decompiling function isn't part of any specification to date (nor
planned in the near future).

Best,

Tobie


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