Confusion with Node.js native Worker

[Christilut]

I'm using the threads-plugin for webpack.

I'm creating a new worker the normal way:
new ThreadManager(new Worker('path/to/worker'), 2)

But keep getting the 404 error. I tried everything to fix it, can't understand why it's doing it.
Until I realize that I didn't add this line:
import { Worker } from 'threads'

This has already happened multiple times. Is there anything Threads.js can do to prevent this from happening again? I'm sure others are having the same problem.

Better error messages in general would also be nice. Now they almost always end up as a 404 error with 10 seconds later a timeout. I understand that this might not be the easiest thing with webpack and all. But I'm quite sure a lot of new users run into these unhelpful errors and debugging this can be really hard.

[andywer]

Thanks for sharing, @Christilut!

I totally get your point and it would be a big win in terms of user friendliness, BUT i currently have no idea how to work around this issue…

You could always import "threads/register" at app launch as you would if you were using threads.js with Parcel, but this is also a pretty nasty hack that will unfortunately make any other code that ever wants to spawn a normal default web worker spawn a threads.js-enhanced web worker. This could potentially lead to really tricky side effects with other libraries…

We could write an eslint rule, but will people really change their eslint config for that, even if it's just a single rule? 🤷‍♂️

Let me know if you or anyone else has an idea! 🙂

[Christilut]

Can't the spawn and ThreadManager constructors check what type the Worker is?

[Christilut]

worker.constructor.name works in TypeScript. Returns a WebWorker for the threads worker and Worker for the native worker.

[andywer]

Be aware of the order in which expressions are evaluated:

1. new Worker(…)
2. spawn(…)

The Worker constructor will be run and throw before spawn() is run.