Hi Alex,
thanks for your prompt reply anyway! I don't think this is very urgent, I
only felt the need to provide a concrete alternative to the "goog" approach
before everybody runs off in that direction... ;-)
I'd appreciate your opinion on the topic and look forward to your response.
Best,
-Frank-
On Thu, Dec 20, 2012 at 8:23 PM, Alex Harui <aha...@adobe.com> wrote:
> Hi Frank,
>
> I will try to take a look, but right now my priorities are post-graduation
> tasks, the 4.9 release and getting the current FalconJS code to spit out
> the
> Base.js format for both MXML and AS. Also, I'm theoretically off duty next
> week, so I won't be poking at this stuff full-time.
>
> Hopefully we can pick this up again in the new year.
>
> -Alex
>
>
> On 12/20/12 9:30 AM, "Frank Wienberg" <fr...@jangaroo.net> wrote:
>
> > Hi folks,
> >
> > as mentioned in another thread, I have been working on a new JavaScript
> > "runtime", which is what I call the way the generated JavaScript code
> looks
> > and works like. While this thread's title has [FalconJx] in it, there is
> no
> > reason the proposal could not be used for FalconJS, too, but I understood
> > that for now, using Google Closure is a given.
> >
> > I had the following design goals:
> >
> > - Support ActionScript 3's "differentiator" features: private members,
> > interfaces + is/as, lazy class initialization, method binding,
> > getter/setter functions
> > - work in IE < 9 (except for getter/setter functions)
> > - Produce debuggable JavaScript code that can also be optimized for
> > deployment. The debuggable code should be very similar to the original
> > ActionScript source code for every line containing executable code
> > - Dependency management: load/bundle only the needed classes. Every
> > compilation unit to debug should load as a separate request
> > - Minimal to no runtime overhead, even in debug mode
> > - Support trace()
> >
> >
> > I took the following design decisions:
> >
> > - For private members, a mix of JavaScript lexical scope and field
> > renaming like in Jangaroo is used
> > - To implement an efficient "is" operator, all interfaces a class
> > implements are determined once for the class. I use a prototype chain
> to
> > inherit the interfaces implemented by the super class
> > - Lazy class initialization uses a very efficient technique refined by
> > Olaf Kummer: Wherever a constructor or non-private static member is
> called,
> > the "self-destructing" class initialization function is checked for
> > existence and, if still existing, called ("guarded" call)
> > - Method binding is again borrowed from the Jangaroo Runtime: the
> bound
> > function is "cached" at the object under a different but unique name
> so
> > that it keeps its identity. This is important e.g. to be able to
> remove
> > event listeners
> > - Getter/setter functions map to Object.defineProperty("...", { get:
> > ..., set: ...}), thus no support in IE < 9
> > - To make everything else work in IE < 9, I use polyfills for
> ECMAScript
> > 5 Object, Array and Function API
> > - For keeping generated code in separate JS files, expressing
> > dependencies between these files, loading them separately at runtime
> and
> > linking them statically into a single JavaScript file, I chose to use
> > Asynchronous Module Definitions (AMD) and RequireJS (version 2.1.2)
> as the
> > concrete implementation of AMD. AMD is preferred over CommonJS
> because it
> > better fits web applications, as e.g. argued here:
> >
> >
> http://blog.millermedeiros.com/amd-is-better-for-the-web-than-commonjs-modules
> > /To
> > link and optimize the application, RequireJS provides an optimizer
> > tool
> > simply called "r.js".
> > - To conditionally load polyfills (for IE < 9), I use the "shim"
> > RequireJS plugin
> > - To achieve minimal runtime overhead, I only use helper functions to
> > define the class structure once (defineClass and defineInterface). As
> soon
> > as the complete application structure is set up, all code executed is
> > inlined
> > - Since all modern browsers seem to support a "console" object with a
> > "log" method, trace() is simply implemented to check for the
> existence of
> > console.log() by trial-and-error (try... catch). It then
> String-converts
> > and concatenates all its arguments like its ActionScript sibling
> >
> >
> > *About the Example*
> >
> > To specify how I think FalconJx-generated JavaScript output should look
> > like, I created an ActionScript example, consisting of two classes and
> > three interfaces. Every language feature supported by the new runtime
> > format gives an appearance in the code (well, I didn't add a private
> static
> > method, because it works like a private method, only simpler).
> > The whole thing is a public GitHub project at
> > https://github.com/fwienber/as-js-runtime-prototype.
> > To download all files in one go as a zip or tar.gz, please use the tag
> > page: https://github.com/fwienber/as-js-runtime-prototype/tags.
> >
> > A live demo is available on the corresponding GitHub pages at
> > http://fwienber.github.com/as-js-runtime-prototype/index.html
> > From there, you can reach all ActionScript example sources and the
> proposed
> > JavaScript equivalent (so far, hand-coded :-)).
> > To see the example in action, use the three bottom links which start the
> > same application in three flavors:
> >
> > - debug: Each JS file corresponding to an AS class or interface and
> the
> > main bootstrap file is loaded with a single request. This gives you a
> nice
> > 1:1 mapping of source to output in the JavaScript debugger.
> Additionally,
> > there are some "infrastructure" files: require.js itself, the
> RequireJS
> > plugin "shim" (shim.js, shims.js), my AS3 runtime helpers
> defineClass.js
> > and defineInterface.js, and a couple of built-in AS3 functions (bind,
> as,
> > is, trace). If loading in IE < 9, the shim plugin loads several ES5
> > polyfills.
> > - linked: The whole application is merged into one JS file using the
> > RequireJS optimizer "r.js" without optimizations. Thus you only have
> two
> > requests: require.js and hello-worls-all.js are loaded. In IE < 9, the
> > polyfills are still loaded one-by-one (I didn't bother to optimize
> this
> > case, but of course, it can be done).
> > - minified: Same as "linked", only that require.js and
> > hellow-world-all.js are minified by Uglify2. This can easily be
> achieved
> > using "r.js" with the parameter optimize=uglify2.
> >
> >
> > For the demo, I redirected trace() from the JavaScript console (backed-up
> > in trace-console.js) to the DOM, so that you can see the log messages
> > directly.
> >
> > Just look into the code and observe how it works in Firebug or any other
> > JavaScript debugger of your choice, and let me know if anything is
> unclear,
> > missing or if you need more reasoning for the design decisions taken.
> > I know there are still several issues to be fleshed out (e.g. interaction
> > with "native" JavaScript or package-scope variables, just to name two),
> but
> > I think the current state is a solid core of how a modern, efficient,
> > self-contained, extensive and still concise JavaScript runtime format for
> > Apache Flex could look like.
> > Please tell me what you think!
> >
> > Have fun,
> > -Frank-
>
> --
> Alex Harui
> Flex SDK Team
> Adobe Systems, Inc.
> http://blogs.adobe.com/aharui
>
>
