First of all, which two proposals are we talking about here?
1. Nicholas' proposal, which is currently to "preload" a script if its
script element is marked with a `preload` attribute, before the setting of
the `src` property. To "execute" the script, you add the script element to
the DOM. To detect when the preload finishes, you listen to the `onpreload`
event.
2. My proposal, which is (by and large) to standardize the functionality
that IE already has, and that the spec already suggests, which is that
preloading happens when setting the `src` property before adding the script
to the DOM. To "execute", add the script to the DOM. TO detect when the
preload finishes, listen for the `onreadystatechange` event to signal that
the `readyState` property is "loaded".
It would certainly make implementing it soon unlikely, if such a beastie
is needed.
I guess that's the crux of the question. Is such a mechanism needed to make
either of those two proposals something palatable to a browser like Mozilla?
For #2 (and several other related questions we've been exploring)...
granted, it clearly seems that IE's implementation is not perfect (but
is at least getting better as of IE9). But as with the above
assertion/question about #1... if the correct thing is just to always
follow HTTP semantics
That's an excellent question. Is that the correct thing?
For some things (e.g. stylesheets and images) browsers don't do this in
many cases (and the HTML5 spec in fact requires such behavior). What
should the script behavior be?
Let me restate: I'm not purporting to know what the semantics should or
should not be. I'm suggesting they should be, per browser, exactly the same
as normal dynamic script loading, in each browser, already behaves. In other
words, I've been operating under the assumption that neither proposal
requires explicitly defining or changing the current HTTP caching semantics.
I'm hoping that if this assumption is wrong, someone can help me understand
why?
I don't understand why the preloading specifically would imply different
HTTP caching semantics than normal dynamic script loading?
--Kyle
