Convert properties to lazy getter

[amovah]

Hi,

It can be faster, feature.js should work as lazy library. every property should be called when I looked it up. not all of them on load time.

I highly recommend you to read getter in object MDN

and I'm interested in fixing this issue.

[jcxplorer]

@amovah getter is a ECMAScript 5.1 feature, and since it isn't supported in all browsers, it seems to me like it would defeat the point of a feature detection library.

[arielsalminen]

@amovah I’m with @jcxplorer on this one

[dictions]

What about memoizing each of the checks? I realize you only want to compute the check once, but as the list grows, so does the computation happening on load.

Then the API would be:

feature.webGL(); // returns computed value
feature.webGL(); // returns cached value

[jcxplorer]

@dictions Sounds like a good idea to me, but it'll be a breaking API change. @viljamis what do you think?

[jcxplorer]

One advantage to the current API is that it's less error-prone:

if (feature.webGL) {   // Correct
if (feature.webGL()) { // Throws exception

Compared to:

if (feature.webGL) {   // Always evaluates to true
if (feature.webGL()) { // Correct

Not saying it'd be a bad change, but something to consider nonetheless.

[amovah]

If we use function, it improves the speed. in other word, change all properties to function (not auto-run function) to prevent load all of them in load time, and it would be executed when we call them.

memoizing it's good idea, but not necessary. anyway I think we must change the API.

@viljamis what you think about?

[aaalsaleh]

How about this then:

// code to detect whether getters are supported
var getterSupported = ...

// all checks as functions
function webGLSupported() {
    // ...
    return result;
}
// others...

if (getterSupported) {
    // all features as smart/memoized/cached getters
    feature = {
        get webGL() {
            delete this.webGL;
            this.webGL = webGLSupported();
        },
        // others...
    };
} else {
    // all features as properties (no improvement here)
    feature.webGL = webGLSupported();
    // others...
}
// add the new "getter" feature (already checked)
feature.getter = getterSupported;

This might slightly improve the runtime performance at the cost of increasing the load time a bit (size). I guess the safest and fastest way to do it is to use functions instead of properties.

[dictions]

@aaalsaleh interesting, I kind of like that solution. The way you're doing if/else is creating a lot of duplication. What about a loop?

// code to detect whether getters are supported
var getterSupported = ...

// all checks as functions
var FeatureChecks = {
    webGLSupported: function() {
        // ...
        return result;
    },
    // ...
}

var features = {};

// Convert to getters or run all checks
if (getterSupported) {
    for (var check in FeatureChecks) {
        Object.defineProperty(features.prototype, check, {get: FeatureChecks[check]});
    }
} else {
    for (var check in FeatureChecks) {
        features[check] = FeatureChecks[check]();
    }
}

return features;

[amovah]

In my opinion, It's not a good idea, both of them.

@aaalsaleh opinion: if we check getter support, then we should have duplicated code and two API. some browsers didn't support getter, and API will be changed to function, and some of them support, and it will be changed to properties. people doesn't know which them is true and what they should use right now.

@dictions opinion: our purpose to use getter or function to improve load time. re-define properties, decrease load time, and again we have two different API.

[aaalsaleh]

@amovah I think you misunderstood javascript getter feature. We will have only one API regardless of browser support: properties. However one of them will only be calculated once accessed and cached (memoized getter), while the other will calculate all of them at load time. With the suggestion of @dictions the redefinition lines is kept around 10 lines only.

@dictions Even better. However, keep in mind that your suggestion will not be memoized/cached getter like the one I suggested, but it will be lazy getter nonetheless. Regardless, here is small modifications:

// code to detect whether getters are supported
var getterSupported = ...

// all checks as functions
var FeatureChecks = {
    // without Supported
    webGL: function() {
        // ...
        return result;
    },
    // ...
}

var features = {};

// Convert to getters or run all checks
if (getterSupported) {
    for (var check in FeatureChecks) {
        if (FeatureChecks.hasOwnProperty(check)) {
            Object.defineProperty(features.prototype, check, {get: FeatureChecks[check]});
        }
    }
} else {
    for (var check in FeatureChecks) {
        if (FeatureChecks.hasOwnProperty(check)) {
            features[check] = FeatureChecks[check]();
        }
    }
}

return features;

I still believe it is a tradeoff, and more testing is needed to determine the performance gains.

[amovah]

@aaalsaleh as I told, Memorizing it's good idea, but not necessary. now we need a better api. and you misunderstood javascript. because your code is wrong and features.prototype is not an Object. and memorizing, first we should fix load time, and then we will do it too.

anyway, Yes, I'm sorry. I didn't read whole of the code. I spoke about that algorithm.

It's good idea. but I've created this issue to prevent load all of properties in load time. but if the browser doesn't support getter, we wil go to load all of them, see below:

...
else {
    for (var check in FeatureChecks) {
        if (FeatureChecks.hasOwnProperty(check)) {
            features[check] = FeatureChecks[check]();
        }
    }
}

our purpose is preventing load all of them and not do as we did. Still, I'm thinking function is better.

what do you think about it? am I right?

[aaalsaleh]

@amovah You started the whole getter idea, I was only suggesting a workaround for browsers not supporting the feature ;)

It is either keep the API and use getter when supported, or change the API to functions as @dictions suggested earlier. The latter is a bit better if you don't mind changing the API.

[amovah]

@aaalsaleh , as I told we must to change the API. and as I told, our purpose of using getter is increasing load time.

if (getterSupported) {
    for (var check in FeatureChecks) {
        if (FeatureChecks.hasOwnProperty(check)) {
            Object.defineProperty(features.prototype, check, {get: FeatureChecks[check]});
        }
    }
}

until here it might be good idea. but rest of it, it's not good idea. it's against our purpose of using getter or function. it loads whole of checkers in load time.

Conclusion: if we use getter, some browsers don't support it. if we check that whether browser supports getter, use it, otherwise call functions. PROBLEM is here, calling all of them. it's decreasing load time. so we can't use getter and we should don't load all of them in load time. so what should we do?

in my opinion, using function instead all of them it's better idea. all browser supports and it doesn't execute all of them in load time.

[ShirtlessKirk]

IE8 might be no longer supported by Microsoft, but it still exists; Object.defineProperty will fail if you aren't calling it on a DOM node.

[dictions]

Interesting point @ShirtlessKirk, though IE8 doesn't support getter/setter, so I don't think it would matter. I guess we could check for both, though now we're adding a lot of extra complexity.

RE functions vs getters: I totally agree with @amovah that the point is to decrease initial load time. That comes at the expense of either changing the API or gracefully degrading to browsers that don't support getters.

My vote is for memoized functions.

[amovah]

I think memorized functions is not a good idea for this project. because we check a feature for once, and browsers can't mutate then support a feature suddenly.

[eorroe]

If you use functions:

1. All browsers support it
2. Don't have to check for getter support
3. You can pass an object literal for options:

Say:

feature.classList({
 toggle: true
}) // true if toggle also exist

Which for example would check if the toggle method exist?

Obviously that all depends on how you decide to set up the options param

You could also take advantage of the localStorage api and store feature support by passing something like:

feature.classList({
 toggle: true,
 cache: true
});

It can get more complicated and perhaps instead of passing a boolean for toggle you pass a type:

feature.classList({
 toggle: Function,
 cache: true
});

To seperate property methods and your the library's own set of properties you could:

feature.classList({
 methods: {
   toggle: Function
 },
 cache: true
});

Or just use something like a prefix of $ for flags:

feature.classList({
 toggle: Function
 $cache: true
});

This would be really ugly for an if statement so perhaps it could return a useful object with methods like exec:

feature.classList({
 toggle: Function
 $cache: true
}).exec(successCB, failedCB);

Some real code example (which takes advantage of closure):

var test = feature.classList({
  toggle: Function
});

someBtn.addEventListener('click', function(evt) {
  test.exec(function() {
    node.classList.toggle('example');
  }, function() {
    if (node.classList.contains('example')) {
      node.classList.remove('example');
    } else {
      node.classList.add('example');
    }
  });
});

[amovah]

Hi @viljamis,

what do you think about this?

If you don't want change anything, I will fork and make changes.

[meowsus]

If we can avoid forcing the browser to run each of these methods on page load needlessly, I see that as a win. However it would obviously be unavoidable on the first page load if someone is calling the testAll method.

There is also this issue which requests modular tests. Perhaps the solution lies in including tests specific to your application's code and not the entire library all at once?