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I don't understand something: "Cloudflare workers" are, at the end of the day, computers, right? Probably virtual ones (either VMs or containers). So, why is th

by danwee 3y ago

I don't understand something: "Cloudflare workers" are, at the end of the day, computers, right? Probably virtual ones (either VMs or containers). So, why is the ability of creating TCP sockets a feature? Why their "cloudflare workers" had that handicap to begin with?

paulgb 3y ago
They are neither VMs or containers, but V8 Isolates. They lacked an API for making outgoing raw TCP connections in the same way that JavaScript running in a browser can’t.
- poxrud 3y ago
  This used to be an option in Chrome when running in an extension. Sadly sockets were removed in manifest v3.
- silentsea90 3y ago
  I was lost about the distinction. This talk really helped: https://www.infoq.com/presentations/cloudflare-v8/ https://www.infoq.com/presentations/cloudflare-v8/
zuprau 3y ago
I might be wrong, but they're more like a browser’s "service worker" than a Node app.[0] The fact that they have to manually add "compatibility" with Node modules like `utils`[1] seems to support this. [0]: https://blog.cloudflare.com/node-js-support-cloudflare-workers/#supporting-native-apis https://blog.cloudflare.com/node-js-support-cloudflare-worke... [1]: https://blog.cloudflare.com/workers-node-js-asynclocalstorage/ https://blog.cloudflare.com/workers-node-js-asynclocalstorag...
- crabmusket 3y ago
  That's exactly right, and they even use the same API[1] for accepting and replying to HTTP requests . As well as supporting other service worker APIs like caches. [1] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/FetchEvent https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/FetchEvent