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Specify display conventions for wasm locations #1053

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66 changes: 66 additions & 0 deletions Web.md
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -123,6 +123,72 @@ MIME type mismatch or `opaque` response types
[reject](http://tc39.github.io/ecma262/#sec-rejectpromise) the Promise with a
`WebAssembly.CompileError`.

## Developer-facing display conventions

Browsers, JavaScript engines, and offline tools have common ways of referring to
JavaScript artifacts and language constructs. For example, locations in
JavaScript source code are printed in stack traces or error messages, and are
represented naturally as decimal-format lines and columns in text files. Names
of functions and variables are taken directly from the sources. Therefore (for
example) even though the exact format of Error.stack strings does not always
match, the locations are easily understandable and the same across browsers.

To achive the same goal of a common representations for WebAssembly constructs, the
following conventions are adopted.

A WebAssembly location is a reference to a particular instruction in the binary, and may be
displayed by a browser or engine in similar contexts as JavaScript source locations.
It has the following format:

`${url}:wasm-function[${funcIndex}]:${pcOffset}`

Where
* `${url}` is the URL associated with the module, if applicable (see notes).
* `${funcIndex}` is an index in the [function index space](Modules.md#function-index-space).
* `${pcOffset}` is the offset in the module binary of the first byte
of the instruction, printed in hexadecimal with lower-case digits,
with a leading `0x` prefix.

Notes:
* The URL field may be interpreted differently depending on the
context. When the response-based
instantiation [API](#additional-web-embedding-api) is used in a
browser, the associated URL should be used; or when the
ArrayBuffer-based instantiation
[API](JS.md#webassemblyinstantiate) is used, the browser should represent
the location of the API call. This kind of instantiation is analagous to
executing JavaScript using `eval`; therefore if the browser has an existing
method to represent the location of the `eval` call it can use a similar
one for `WebAssembly.instantiate`. For example if the browser uses
`foo.js line 10 > eval` or `eval at bar (foo.js:10:3)` for `eval`, it could
use `foo.js line 10 > WebAssembly.instantiate` or
`WebAssembly.instantiate at bar (foo.js:10:3)`, respectively.
Offline tools may use a filename instead.
* Using hexadecimal for module offsets matches common conventions in native tools
such as objdump (where addresses are printed in hex) and makes them visually
distinct from JavaScript line numbers. Other numbers are represented in decimal.

While the `name` property of [exported WebAssembly functions](JS.md#exported-function-exotic-objects)
is specified by the JS API, synthesized function names are also
displayed in other contexts like devtool callstacks and `Error.stack`.
If a WebAssembly module contains a ["name" section](BinaryEncoding.md#name-section),
these names should be used to synthesize a function name as follows:
* If a function name subsection is present, the displayed name should
be `${module_name}.${function_name}` or `${function_name}`, depending
on whether the module name is present.
* Otherwise, the output can be context-dependent:
* If the function name is shown alongside its location in a
stack trace, then just the module name (if present) or an empty string
can be used (because the function index is already in the location).
* Otherwise, `${module_name}.wasm-function[${funcIndex}]` or
`wasm-function[${funcIndex}]` should be used to convey the function index.

Note that this document does not specify the full format of strings such as
stack frame representations; this allows engines to continue using their
existing formats for JavaScript (which existing code may already be depending
on) while still printing WebAssembly frames in a format consistent with
JavaScript.

## Modules

WebAssembly's [modules](Modules.md) allow for natural [integration with
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