multithreading/workers/browser

Browser-side evaluation worker wrapper for serialized networks.

This chapter is the Web Worker half of the multithreading boundary. It does not teach activation math again. Its job is to take the flat dataset and network contract from multithreading/, package it into browser-friendly transfer buffers, and return one scalar error without blocking the main thread.

The lifecycle is intentionally coarse grained. The constructor transfers the dataset once and creates a blob-backed worker program. Each evaluate() call then sends only the activation, state, and connection buffers for one candidate network. That keeps the wrapper focused on whole-network scoring jobs rather than chatty per-layer messaging.

Read the file in runtime order: constructor first, evaluate() second, _createBlobString() last. That matches the actual browser story: bootstrap a worker, run repeated evaluations, then inspect how the inline worker code is assembled.

flowchart LR
  Host[Browser host] --> Dataset[Transfer dataset once]
  Dataset --> Blob[Create blob worker]
  Blob --> Evaluate[Transfer network buffers]
  Evaluate --> Error[Return scalar error]

For background on the browser primitive behind this wrapper, see MDN Web Docs, Using Web Workers.

Example: create one browser worker and reuse it across repeated evaluations.

const worker = new TestWorker(serializedSet, { name: 'mse' });
const score = await worker.evaluate(network);
worker.terminate();

multithreading/workers/browser/testworker.ts

CostFunction

Interface for cost function used in worker evaluation.

SerializableNetwork

Interface for serializable network used in worker evaluation.

TestWorker

TestWorker class for handling network evaluations in a browser environment using Web Workers.

This implementation aligns with the Instinct algorithm's emphasis on efficient evaluation of neural networks in parallel environments. The use of Web Workers allows for offloading computationally expensive tasks, such as network evaluation, to separate threads.

_createBlobString

_createBlobString(
  cost: CostFunction,
): string

Creates a string representation of the worker's blob.

Returns: The blob string.

evaluate

evaluate(
  network: SerializableNetwork,
): Promise<number>

Evaluates a network using the worker process.

Returns: A promise that resolves to the evaluation result.

terminate

terminate(): void

Terminates the worker process and revokes the object URL.