vice-versa project

every browser has some good feature: it could be performances, it could be something "not standard yet", it could a feature ready for ECMAScript 5. vice-versa project aim is to bring good stuff from every browser into a single, cross-browser, lightweight, JavaScript file.

Philosophy

Array.forEach(document.all, function(node, i, all){
    // vice-versa project
});

As a JavaScript Ninja I have to deal on daily basis with hundreds of different problems because of "this or that" browser implementation. The Web is loads of libraries but too often what we need to do is "out of the box" and these libraries could help, or simply they could slow down our application performances because of unnecessary overload over common or simple tasks. Studying the DOM, which is notoriously a mess, I often "travel" between the MDC and the MSDN to solve a specific trouble which could cause a lot of headaches because of "some" missed W3C implementation. At the same time, bearing in mind that the most used browser is the one with the slowest JavaScript engine, I always try to find out solutions able to complete a task without killing performances. In most of the cases, I simply realized that since other browsers are fast and more powerful, it makes sense to bring some not standard functionality inside these browsers rather than implement, when it is possible, a missed functionality in Internet Explorer. As basic example, to convert an XML document into a string, we would like to use an XMLSerializer instance, but what is that wrong with Microsoft xml attribute shortcut?

// other browsers way
var xmls = new XMLSerializer;
var string = xmls.serializeToString(myXMLDocument);

// Internet Explorer way
var string = myXMLDocument.xml;

Moreover, document.evaluate is amazing stuff, but the most common call to this function is this one:

var xpresult = document.evaluate(XPathSelector, myXMLDocument, null, 0 /* as ANY_TYPE */, null);

In internet explorer we have a slightly different function: selectNodes

var xpresult = myXMLDocument.selectNodes(XPathSelector);

The main difference is number of character used to call the standard method rather than IE one, with a completely equal result during iteration where IE nextNode has the same meaning of other browsers iterateNext. Again, if we are in Internet Explorer we can rely in the most ugly property we have ever seen since first JScript implementation over the DOM: document.all. Now, why on earth we love YUICompressor plus gzip "miniaturization" but we prefer a meaningless syntax like this:

document.getElementsByTagName("*")

rather than

document.all

?

The list could go on with execScript to evaluate code in a global scope (both Ajax and runtime related) and Object.defineProperty, but at the same time we have lacks over the Array.prototype since ages, something kinda boring because of the global constructor prototye which should be "untouched" for compatibility reasons ... it's time to understand that nobody performs a for in loop over list or collections, so Array.prototype has to be standardized, there's no "maybe" or "perhaps", secially now that it has been implemented as standard in ECMAScript 5. As summary, these are concept inside vice-versa project: where it is possible to implement another interesting browser behavior, that will be part of the vice-versa project, specially if these behaviors could slow down general application performances, or these behaviors are not standards!

vice-versa features from Internet Explorer

• Object.defineProperty (IE 8 or greater)
• document.all, as shortcut for document.getElementsByTagName("*")
• document.createElement with html support for every browser (sometimes makes life simpler e.g document.createElement('<em class="test"></em>'))
• HTMLElement.attachEvent and detachEvent
• global window.event object populated via attachEvent with cancelBubble and returnValue properties features
• HTMLElement.outerHTML both set and get (the simplest way to read a DOM element as a string)
• HTMLElement.innerText both set and get (the fastest way in IE to insert a text node)
• HTMLElement.outerText both set and get (the fastest way in IE to replace a generic node with a text one)
• execScript to evaluate in a global scope every kind of string (no second argument support)
• XPath selectNodes and nextNode via XML documents
• xml property, get only, to retrieve a string representation of an XMLDocument/XMLNode
• insertAdjacentElement, insertAdjacentHTML, and insertAdjacentText, the fastest way to put something before a node, as firstChild, as lastOne, or after the node itself
• sourceIndex, the simplest way to know the indexOf an element in the document.all collection (right now in branch, coming soon as download)

vice-versa features mainly for Internet Explorer

• Array.slice, to slice everything over a generic collection (DOM compatible)
• Array.forEach, to loop oever a generic collection via callback (DOM compatible)
• Array.prototype, updated to last Mozilla/FireFox Array.prototype revision (not full specs, performances focused release)
• XMLHttpRequest, for old IE6 (deprecated, will be removed ASAP, but we have to wait the end of this browser before)
• setInterval and setTimeout with extra arguments, as evey other does

vice-versa features ECMAScript 5

• Object.getPrototypeOf, to retrieve the prototype inherited by a generic object
• Object.keys, fully compatible (toString included), to retrieve an Array of keys from an object
• Object.create, to create, fully compatible (toString included), an new instance from another one
• Array.isArray, to know if a generic object is an Array
• String.prototype.trim, a fast trim implementation for every string
• Function.prototype.bind, a method to ensure the this scope in a function call
• Date ISO 8601 compatible constructor and toISOString prototype method

vice-versa extra features

• document.query, essential library selector to obtain generic results via common dollar queries
• Object.forIn, to loop over a generic instance without considering inherited prototype and without forgetting built-in properties (toString, valueOf, etc)

vice-versa goals

More is coming, hopefully under 10Kb of total minified and gzipped size (les than 4 right now), this is just a partial implementation of my original idea. Third parts libraries will be welcome, contributors from other libraries team more than welcome and go on ... the main idea is to create a full hybrid of the JavaScript scenario making performances similar for every browser and providing a low level framework to build up complex libraries, applications, other, respecting where it is possible Internet Explorer, and bringing its features inside other fast and powerful browsers. Am I that insane?