2011/9/3 David Bruant <david.bru...@labri.fr>
> If i recall correctly, this proposal was on hold because of the fixed
> properties proposal (only getPropertyDescriptor I think).
> The idea was that if there is a getPropertyDescriptor trap, then it
> became impossible (or it would just require some proto-climbing with
> some performance issue?) to guarantee the invariants of non-configurable
> properties. But now that I think about it, i can't remember exactly what
> was the annoying use case.
>
> Adding Tom in copy. Maybe he'll remember.
>
The issue was that with the earlier fixed properties proposal (the one that
stopped trapping access to cached non-configurable properties), the proxy
would also cache inherited non-configurable property descriptors, and in
doing so the properties were converted into "own" properties of the proxy
(Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor would find them in the cache).
In the latest design of the fixed properties proposal, inherited
non-configurable properties are simply no longer checked.
So the short answer: the getPropertyDescriptor trap is no longer
problematic, so neither should Object.getPropertyDescriptor.
If you want to understand why I think getPropertyDescriptor is no longer
problematic in the latest design, read on (apologies for the lengthy
explanation, this stuff is hard to formulate concisely!)
- When the getPropertyDescriptor trap returns a non-configurable property,
in the absence of any other information, the caller cannot know whether that
property is an own or an inherited property. Concretely:
var desc = Object.getPropertyDescriptor(obj, "foo");
// does "desc" describe an own or inherited "foo"? Can't know at this point.
- If the property is inherited, then even if it is non-configurable, it may
still be shadowed later by a configurable property. Say our |obj| example
object inherits from |proto1|, which inherits from |proto2|. Assume "foo"
was defined as a non-configurable property on |proto2|. Then our |desc|
object above denotes a non-configurable property. Now, assume "foo" is later
added to |proto1| as a configurable property. Re-executing the call to
getPropertyDescriptor will then result in "desc" denoting a configurable
property. That is within the bounds of ES5.1 behavior.
If |obj| would be a proxy with a FixedHandler, the FixedHandler should not
complain that "foo" was previously reported as non-configurable. That is why
inherited descriptors returned by getPropertyDescriptor are not checked for
invariants.
- Now assume a different scenario in which "foo" is an own, non-configurable
property of |obj|. The only way for code to find out that "foo" is indeed an
own, non-configurable property is to call Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor.
Doing so will cause the FixedHandler to mark "foo" as a fixed own property.
Now, if code calls Object.getPropertyDescriptor(obj, "foo"), the
getPropertyDescriptor trap will find "foo" marked as an own property, so it
_knows_ it can't be inherited and it must check the validity of the returned
result. If getPropertyDescriptor were to return a configurable descriptor at
this stage, the FixedHandler will throw.
Thus, the following interaction could occur if |obj| were a "faulty" proxy
whose getPropertyDescriptor trap reports "foo" as a configurable property
while at the same time its getOwnPropertyDescriptor trap reports it as a
non-configurable property (which is inconsistent):
> var desc1 = Object.getPropertyDescriptor(obj, "foo");
// desc1 = { ... , configurable: true }
> var desc2 = Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(obj, "foo");
// desc2 = { ..., configurable: false }
// (now FixedHandler knows that "foo" was observed as an own
non-configurable property)
> var desc3 = Object.getPropertyDescriptor(obj, "foo");
TypeError: can't report "foo" as configurable as it was previously exposed
as a non-configurable own property
I hope this clarifies why I think getPropertyDescriptor is no longer
problematic.
Cheers,
Tom
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