knielsen / ice40_viewer Goto Github PK

Hey Kristian, thanks for the useful project.

The perl script (gen_chipdb_js.pl) bundles the databases into a JavaScript file, which may be loaded - unlike text files - from file: origins. It appears to me that this is primarily used to support the standalone mode.

In non-standalone mode, the examples dropdown is broken on the file: origin because the XMLHttpRequest for .asc files fails CORS (this may have only become an issue in the last few years, as browsers tightened their security policy). In standalone mode, the .asc file is bundled directly into the HTML and so (I am assuming) does still work.

I think there might be a way to load the databases lazily, and keep the standalone mode. If it is possible to find a web server on the internet that serves the databases with permissive CORS headers (and Cache-Control headers!), they can be XMLHttpRequested directly as text and the perl script can be removed. Alternatively, dropping support for the file: origin would simplify everything tremendously, but necessitate a local web server. But I don't know how you'd feel about this.

Also, if parsing was done in a Web Worker, there would be no need to "step" it in order to keep the UI responsive. The parsing of the .asc and databases could be done in parallel. But that's a different issue.

Hi @knielsen have you created a great tool.
I have started similar project icedrom here: https://github.com/drom/icedrom
I would be glad joining the efforts.