1523257 - WebConsoleConnectionProxy.isAttached is redundant with WebConsoleConnectionProxy._connectDefer

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1566879

(DevTools :: Console, enhancement, P2)

Description

[Alexandre Poirot [:ochameau]]

While I rebased on top of bug 1518777, I realized that the new field "isAttached"
https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/rev/4faab2f1b697827b93e16cb798b22b197e5235c9/devtools/client/webconsole/webconsole-connection-proxy.js#137
Was redundant with "_connectDefer"
https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/rev/4faab2f1b697827b93e16cb798b22b197e5235c9/devtools/client/webconsole/webconsole-connection-proxy.js#262

While _connectDefer is more powerful as it includes a timesout.
Also, isAttached isn't a very explicit name. We are using "attach" for historical reasons. We use to have an attach sequence for all actors but that was only for the oldest actors: console and thread. There is still an attachConsole method on DebuggerClient:
https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/source/devtools/shared/client/debugger-client.js#393-400
Which calls startListener like here, but the naming feels now outdated.
This method should be ultimately replaced by target.getFront("webconsole") as we typically do not pass any listener and only want to retrieve the console client:
https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/rev/4faab2f1b697827b93e16cb798b22b197e5235c9/devtools/client/framework/target.js#562-563

So both fields feel redudant and "_connectDefer" is more complete and may have a better naming. We may revisit the usages of "attach" in our codebase.

Comment 1

[Nicolas Chevobbe [:nchevobbe][PTO - back on October 21]]

Will be removed in Bug 1566879