[whatwg] API for encoding/decoding ArrayBuffers into text

[Tab Atkins Jr.]

On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 4:08 PM, Jonas Sicking <jonas at sicking.cc> wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 3:58 PM, Tab Atkins Jr. <jackalmage at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 3:49 PM, Jonas Sicking <jonas at sicking.cc> wrote:
>>> Hi All,
>>>
>>> Something that has come up a couple of times with content authors
>>> lately has been the desire to convert an ArrayBuffer (or part thereof)
>>> into a decoded string. Similarly being able to encode a string into an
>>> ArrayBuffer (or part thereof).
>>>
>>> Something as simple as
>>>
>>> DOMString decode(ArrayBufferView source, DOMString encoding);
>>> ArrayBufferView encode(DOMString source, DOMString encoding,
>>> [optional] ArrayBufferView destination);
>>>
>>> would go a very long way. The question is where to stick these
>>> functions. Internationalization doesn't have a obvious object we can
>>> hang functions off of (unlike, for example crypto), and the above
>>> names are much too generic to turn into global functions.
>>>
>>> Ideas/opinions/bikesheds?
>>
>> Python3 just defines str.encode and bytes.decode.  Can we not do this
>> with String.encode and ArrayBuffer.decode?
>
> Unfortunately I suspect getting anything added on the String object
> will take a few years given that it's too late to get into ES6 (and in
> any case I suspect adding ArrayBuffer dependencies to ES6 would be
> controversial).

Like Ian said, I don't see anything particularly bad about the spec
defining ArrayBuffers to define an ArrayBuffer-related method on
String.  There's no reason it has to be in the ES spec.

~TJ