This library provides basic compatibility for the html5 web worker api in browsers that don't support it. Ideally, usage is as simple as including Worker.js, and everything should work out of the box. In practice, you should read the Limitations section and test in a browser that doesn't support web workers.
This was developed for Asterank, where it is used so people with underpowered browsers can still enjoy the physics simulations.
- Support for data URIs
- Support for importScripts()
- Basic error handling
<script src="https://cdn.rawgit.com/andywer/webworker-fallback/__VERSION__/Worker.js"></script>(where __VERSION__ is a version like '0.5.0')
or when using browserify/webpack:
require('webworker-fallback');Note: The fallback will only be used when no window.Worker implementation is found.
No support for infinite loops in workers
You'll have to change infinite loops in your workers to something like:
(function loop() {
// do work
setTimeout(loop, 60);
});Or, experimentally, use the doEvents method exposed in the worker context:
while (true) {
// do work
self.doEvents();
}No support for close/terminate
worker.close() or self.terminate() have no effect, as the workers aren't actually running on separate threads (so there is nothing to terminate). Instead, I recommend having your worker listen for a shutdown message that causes it to stop doing work.
- terminate/close support
web-workers-fallback Copyright (C) 2012 by Ian Webster
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The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
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