Subj : Re: int8 for property enum?
To   : Brian Genisio <BrianGenisio@yahoo.com>
From : Brendan Eich <brendan@meer.net>
Date : Mon Feb 02 2004 01:25 pm

Brian Genisio wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Please tell me if I have a misunderstanding here... it seems I must. 
> (using spidermonkey)
>
> When I create an object type in javascript, I create a handful of 
> properties, and register them using the JSPropertySpec type.  In this 
> type, the unique ID is defined as int8, which can have a value of -127 
> to 127.
>
> So, this means that I have a limit of 256 properties for a given 
> object.  What if I want more?  The reason this seems a bit 
> restrictive, is because of delegation and the [] operator.


It's just a tinyid restriction.  There's no law that says you have to 
use tinyids, that is, use JS_DefineProperties or 
JS_DefinePropertyWithTinyId.  You can use 
JS_Define{,UC}{Property,Element} freely.

Why tinyids, anyway?  They exist so you can have a class getter or 
setter, or even a getter/setter shared among a set of properties, and 
you want the common getter/setter to switch on an int id of some sort.  
That's what tinyids are for; they make for dense switches, and generally 
you don't need anywhere near more than a hundred or so well-known 
properties per built-in object class.

The API is bigger than any one of its parts -- look nearby.

/be

.