I'd like a way to use workers without having to use an external resource.
This would allow easier testing, mashups, small standalone apps, and so
forth.
Possible ways to do it:
* Support data: URLs in the constructor. A bit annoying to work with,
though.
new Worker('data:...');
new SharedWorker('data:...', 'foo');
* Point to an element within the same document with a fragment identifier.
<script type=text/x-worker id=worker>...</script>
new Worker('#worker');
new SharedWorker('#worker', 'foo');
* Pass a string to the constructor with an additional parameter saying
that it's a string of script rather than a URL.
new Worker('...', true);
new SharedWorker('...', 'foo', true);
* Mint new constructors that you pass a string to instead of a URL.
new WorkerXYZ('...');
new SharedWorkerXYZ('...', 'foo');
* ...other?
Currently it seems it is possible to work around the external resource
limitation by doing:
<!--
postMessage('works!');
/*
-->
<!doctype html>
<script>
// The empty string should work too, per spec, AFAICT, but
// Firefox and Chrome throw an exception for the empty string
var worker = new Worker('?');
worker.onmessage = function(e) { alert(e.data) }
</script>
<!--
*/
//-->
...but this is a bit too hacky for my taste.
--
Simon Pieters
Opera Software
