On Tue, Oct 7, 2014 at 6:50 PM, Ilya Grigorik <igrigo...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 11, 2014 at 7:55 PM, Ryosuke Niwa <rn...@apple.com> wrote: > > > On Sep 8, 2014, at 10:54 PM, Ilya Grigorik <igrigo...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > On Mon, Sep 8, 2014 at 7:59 PM, Ian Hickson <i...@hixie.ch> wrote: > > > > > >>> The platform is missing a lower-level primitive (declarative and > > >>> imperative) that is able to explain resource loading with the same > > >>> expressive power as requests initiated by the browser itself. > > >> > > >> That isn't a problem. > > > > > > I don't follow. To me that *is* the core problem that we should solve > > first > > > and ship as soon as possible: if we keep the surface area low, we can > > ship > > > it quickly and let developers experiment and move the platform forward. > > > Adding more layers of higher-level APIs only slows the deployment > > process. > > > > What problem(s) are those developers going to solve with such a low level > > API > > other than the use cases A through Z listed here? > Responding to Ryosuke (I wasn't on the list then), a low level API is exactly what's missing. IMO, the idea that browsers should provide convenient, high-level, spot solutions to some common problems is flawed. Instead, the browser should expose the lowest-level, most-capable APIs and let libraries sort out the convenience and common idioms. It's less work for browser vendors and empowers library authors and the developer community. I want to be able to fill a page with a thousand img tags and specify that they download in order of distance from the viewport. I want to be able to set priorities of XMLHttpRequests. I want to be able to set XHR priorities relative to image loads (that actually came up _today_ in profiling our application). I want to be able to deprioritize arbitrary resources after first paint. I want to adjust priorities as the application is being used. In short, I agree 100% with Ilya: Instead of hypothesizing about use cases, the web is better-served by exposing the primitive features of the web platform, which lets library authors and web developers decide for themselves how to take advantage of them. Cheers, Chad -- Chad Austin Technical Director, IMVU http://chadaustin.me
