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coincident

Social Media Photo by bady abbas on Unsplash

An Atomics based Proxy to simplify, and synchronize, Worker related tasks.

Coincident V4

This is the latest iteration of this module where everything is explained in the related merge request and it can be summarized as such:

  • there is one default encoder/decoder that brings the best of all worlds out of the box
  • there are more utilities that helps reducing roundtrips
  • views and buffers are compatible and fast by default
  • the whole FFI is now 100% code covered in its dedicated, dependency-free, project

API

main
import coincident from 'coincident/main';

const {
  // the Worker to be used (this extends the global one and add proxy)
  Worker:globalThis.Worker & { proxy: Proxy },
  // true if SharedArrayBuffer and sync operations are usable
  native:boolean,
  // a utility to transfer buffers directly via `postMessage`
  // use this at the end of any proxied function signature/call
  transfer:(...buffers:ArrayBuffer[]) => buffers,
} = coincident({
  // an optional way to transform values before sending these elsewhere
  transform: value => any,
  // an optional way to encode any value as binary
  // reflected-ffi/encoder as default
  encoder: reflectedFFIEncoder,
  // if `false` disable/ignore the transfer ability (perf boost)
  transfer:boolean,
});
worker
import coincident from 'coincident/worker';

const {
  // the proxy to invoke sync or async main thread exposed utility
  // it can expose utilities itself too that the main can invoke
  proxy: Proxy,
  // true if SharedArrayBuffer and sync operations are usable
  native:boolean,
  // a utility to transfer buffers directly via `postMessage`
  // use this at the end of any proxied function signature/call
  transfer:(...buffers:ArrayBuffer[]) => buffers,
  // a way to directly transfer a value as it is
  direct: value => value,
} = coincident({
  // an optional way to transform values before sending these elsewhere
  transform: value => any,
  // an optional way to decode any bonary as value
  // reflected-ffi/decoder as default
  decoder: reflectedFFIDirectDecoder,
  // if `false` disable/ignore the transfer ability (perf boost)
  transfer:boolean,
  // optional minimum SharedArrayBuffer size
  minByteLength: 0x7FFF,
  // optional maximum SharedArrayBuffer size
  maxByteLength: 0x1000000,
});

window/worker

It returns as part of the object literal also window, usable only when native is true, and isWindowProxy which returns true or false accordingly if the tested reference is from the main thread or not.

server/worker

It returns as part of the object literal what window/worker returns but also server, usable only when native is true, and isServerProxy which returns true or false accordingly if the tested reference is from the backend or not.

V2 API

Following the description of all different imports to use either on the main or the worker thread.

coincident/main

This is the import that provides the ability to expose main thread's callbacks to the worker thread and to also await callbacks exposed via the worker code.

import coincident from 'coincident/main';

const {
  // the Worker to be used (this extends the global one)
  Worker,
  // a boolean indicating if shared array buffer is supported
  native,
  // a utility to transfer values directly via `postMessage`
  // (...args: Transferable[]) => Transferable[]
  transfer,
} = coincident({
  // an optional utility to transform values (FFI / Proxy related)
  transform: value => value,
});

coincident/main - Worker class

The Worker class returned by coincident() has these features:

  • it always starts a Worker as { type: "module" } ( mostly because the worker needs to await coincident() on bootstrap )
  • it optionally accepts a { serviceWorker: "../sw.js" } to help sabayon falling back to synchronous behavior, which is mandatory to use any DOM or window related functionality
  • it provides to each instance a proxy reference where utilities, as callbacks, can be assigned or asynchronously awaited if exposed within worker's code
const { proxy } = new Worker('./worker.js');

// can be invoked from the worker
proxy.location = () => location.href;

// exposed via worker code
await proxy.compute();

coincident/worker

This is the import that provides the ability to expose worker thread's callbacks to the main thread and to also directly invoke callbacks exposed via the main proxied reference.

import coincident from 'coincident/worker';

const {
  // the counter-part of the main worker.proxy reference
  proxy,
  // a boolean indicating if shared array buffer is supported
  native,
  // a utility to transfer values directly via `postMessage`
  // (...args: Transferable[]) => Transferable[]
  transfer,
  // a way to transfer a value directly as it is
  direct: value => value,
  // a namespace to batch multiple operations into a single roundtrip
  ffi: {
    assign, query, gather, evaluate,
  }
} = await coincident({
  // an optional utility to transform values (FFI / Proxy related)
  transform: value => value,
});

// exposed to the main thread
proxy.compute = async () => {
  // super expensive task ...
  return 'result';
};

// consumed from the main thread
// synchronous if COI is enabled or
// the Service Worker was passed
console.log(proxy.location());

Window

These exports and their coincident/dist/... pre-optimized counter-parts allow coincident to drive, from a Worker the main thread and operate directly on it.

coincident/window/main

When the worker code expects the main window reference, this import is needed to allow just that.

import coincident from 'coincident/window/main';
//                                 ^^^^^^

const { Worker, polyfill, transfer } = coincident();

The signature, on the main thread, is identical.

coincident/window/worker

On the worker side, this import is also identical to the non-window variant but it's returned namespace, after bootstrap, contains two extra utilities:

import coincident from 'coincident/window/worker';
//                                 ^^^^^^

const {
  proxy, native, transfer,
  // it's a synchronous, Atomic.wait based, Proxy
  // to the actual globalThis reference on the main
  window,
  // it's an introspection helper that returns `true`
  // only when a reference points at the main thread
  // (value: any) => boolean
  isWindowProxy,
} = await coincident();

// direct synchronous access to the main `window`
console.log(window.location.href);

window.document.body.textContent = 'Hello World 👋';

Server

These exports and their coincident/dist/... pre-optimized counter-parts allow coincident to drive, from a Worker both the main thread and operate directly on the running server too.

⚠️ WARNING

This feature exists mostly to enable Kiosk or IoT related projects and it should not be publicly available as any malicious worker code could fully take over the server or harm the service.

coincident/server

This is what node or bun or others should import to instrument connected WebSockets.

import coincident from 'coincident/server';

// Bun example
serve({
  port,
  fetch,
  // here coincident options should have
  // a "truthy" bun 🐰
  websocket: coincident({ bun: true })
});

// NodeJS ⬡ or any other with `ws` module as example
import { WebSocketServer } from 'ws';
const server = ...;
coincident({
  // the `wss` property must be there
  wss: new WebSocketServer({ server })
});

The coincident utility here simply instruments every connected WebSocket to react on message and close events.

coincident/server/main

When the worker code expects both the main window and the server references, this import is needed to allow just that.

import coincident from 'coincident/server/main';
//                                 ^^^^^^

const { Worker, polyfill, transfer } = coincident({
  ws: 'ws://localhotst:8080/'
  //   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
});

The signature, on the main thread, is identical except the WebSocket url must be provided during initialization.

coincident/server/worker

On the worker side, this import is also identical to the window variant but it's returned namespace, after bootstrap, contains two extra utilities:

import coincident from 'coincident/server/worker';
//                                 ^^^^^^

const {
  proxy, native, transfer,
  window, isWindowProxy,
  // it's a synchronous, Atomic.wait based, Proxy
  // to the actual globalThis reference on the server
  server,
  // it's an introspection helper that returns `true`
  // only when a reference points at the server
  // (value: any) => boolean
  isServerProxy,
  // a namespace with both FFIs (direct methods are window only)
  ffi: {
    assign, gather, query, evaluate,
    window: { ... }, // replicates above
    server: { ... }, // brings above to the server
  }
} = await coincident();

// direct synchronous access to the main `server`
server.console.log('Hello World 👋');

// example of module import
const os = await server.import('os');
console.log(os.platform());
A note about performance

Every single property retrieved via the window reference is a whole worker ↔ main roundtrip and this is inevitable. There is no "smart caching" ability backed in the project, because everytrhing could be suddenly different at any point in time due side effects that both the worker, or the main thread, could have around previously retrieved references.

Especially when SharedArrayBuffer is polyfilled, and the serviceWorker provided as option, an average PC would perform up to ~1000 roundtrips per second. That seems like a lot but operations can easily pile up and make the program feel unnecessary slower than it could be (if run on the main thread directly, as comparison).

When native SharedArrayBuffer is enabled though, an average PC would be able to do ~50000 (50x) roundtrips per second .... and yet that could also easily degrade with more complex logic involved.

An easy way to prevent repeated roundtrips, when we already assume a reference will not change by any mean over time, we can take over that "smart caching" explicit operation:

const { window } = await coincident();

const { document } = window;
const { head, body } = document;

// any time we need to change the content
body.textContent = 'Hello World 👋';

Please note that because those references won't likely ever change on the main thread, there are also no memory leaks hazard, and that's true with every other reference that might live forefer on the main thread.

About 💀🔒 Deadlock Message

This module allows different worlds to expose utilities that can be invoked elsewhere and there are two ways this can work:

  • Atomics.wait is usable, from a worker, and it will be preferred over Atomics.waitAsync for the simple reason that it unlocks much more than trivial async exchanges between the two worlds. In this case, if the worker is invoking a foreign exposed utility, it will be fully unresponsive until that utility returned a value and there's no possible workaround. When this happens, the module understands that the requested utility comes from a worker that is paused until such invoke returns, and if this invoke relies on a synchronous worker utility there won't be any chance to complete that request: the worker is stuck and the main can't use it until is not stuck anymore. In this case, an error is thrown with details around which worker utility was invoked while the main utility was executing, and the program won't just block itself forever. This is the most meaningful and reasonable deadlock case to throw errors unconditionally ... but ...
  • if this module runs without Atomics.wait ability, meaning no COI headers are enabled and no serviceWorker fallback has been used, it is possible for a main exported utility to query a worker exported utility one once executed, assuming there is no recursion in doing so (i.e. the worker calls main() that internally calls worker() which in turns calls main() again). These cases are rather infinite loops/recursions than deadlocks but if you are sure your main utility is invoking something in the worker that won't cause such infinite recursion, no deadlock error would be shown, as that would not be the case, strictly speaking, but also recursions won't be tracked so ... be careful with your logic!

As rule of thumb, do not ever invoke other world utilities while one of your exported utility is executing, so that code will be guaranteed to work in both Atomics.wait and Atomics.waitAsync scenarios without ever worrying about future deadlock, once all headers are available or the serviceWorker helper will be used.

It is, however, always possible to execute foreign utilities on the next tick, micro-task, timeout, idle state or listener, so that if a main exposed utility needs to invoke a worker utility right after, there are ways to do that.

About SharedArrayBuffer

Unfortunately not enabled by default on the Web, the SharedArrayBuffer primitive requires either special headers permissions to be trusted or a polyfill that can always enable the async abilities of the Atomics specifications and eventually grant the sync abilities too, as long as a ServiceWorker able to handle those requests is installed.

This primitive is needed to enable notifications about data cross realms, notifications that are expected to be sync, in the best case scenario, or async as least possible fallback.

Enable both sync & async SharedArrayBuffer features

This is the preferred way to use this module or any module depending on it, meaning all headers to enable SAB are in place. To do so:

  • be sure your server is providing those headers as explained in MDN
  • bootstrap a local server that provides such headers for local tests: npx mini-coi ./ is all you need to enable these headers locally, but the utility doesn't do much more than serving files with those headers enabled
  • use <script src="./mini-coi.js"></script> on top of your <head> node in your HTML templates to use automatically a ServiceWorker that force-enable those headers for any request made frm any client. This woks on GitHub pages too, and every other static files handler for local projects
  • use the ServiceWorker logic enabled out of the box by passing the file npx sabayon ./public/sw.js to Worker constructors, so that such SW can be used to polyfill the sync case
  • provide your own ServiceWorker file whenever a Worker is created, out of the { serviceWorker: '../sw.js' } extra option, as long as it imports utilities from sabayon, as explained in its ServiceWorker related details

The latter 2 points will inevitably fallback to a polyfilled version of the native possible performance but it should be good enough to enable your logic around workers invoking, or reaching, synchronous main thread related tasks.

Enable only async SharedArrayBuffer features

This module by default does fallback to a SAB polyfill, meaning async notification of any buffer are still granted to be executed or succeed, thanks to sabayon underlying module.

This scenario is ideal when:

  • no special headers are allowed in your project
  • no Serviceworker is allowed in your project
  • you only need to await asynchronous utilities from a Worker, never the other way around
  • you never need to reach, or execute, code on the main thread, from a worker

As long as these enabled use cases are clear, here the caveats:

  • your worker can't ever reach directly anything coming from the main thread
  • your worker doesn't ever receive a main thread reference as an argument

If all of this is clear, it's possible to use coincident module as bridge between worker exported features / utilities consumed asynchronously by the main thread any time it needs to.

This still unlocks tons of use cases out there, but it's definitively a constrained and limited experience.

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An Atomics based Proxy to simplify, and synchronize, Worker related tasks.

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Jul 25, 2024

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