Create a Web Worker from a function, not a file

InlineWorker.js

// Web Workers can be built from data URLs!
// See http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/workers.html#dom-worker

// Chrome doesn't seem to support this yet but FF does
// So how about a helper to create a Web Worker from a function

var InlineWorker = (function() {

var r_func = /^\s*function\s*\(.*?\)\s*\{|\}\s*$/g;

return function( func, encoding ) {
	return new Worker(
		"data:application/javascript;charset=" +
		( encoding || "UTF-8" ) + "," +
		encodeURIComponent( func.toString().replace(r_func,"") )
	);
};

})();

// Then, in your app

var worker = InlineWorker(function( self /* argument is optional */ ) {
	self.addEventListener( "message", function(e) {
		self.postMessage( "I received: " + e.data );
	}, false );
});
		
worker.addEventListener( "message", function( e ) {
	console.log( "Worker said: ", e.data );
}, false );

worker.postMessage( "Hello World" ); // Will output "I received: Hello World".

// Beware: the function body is "serialized", so scope is lost!!!

var inScope = "I am in the original scope";

InlineWorker(function( self /* argument is optional */ ) {
	inScope; // throws an exception
});

Instead of removing the function with r_func you could've simply wrapped the thing in '(' + func.toString() + ')()'.

Look who didn't see the comment before? \o/

The r_func is here in case you give a named function:

function fn() {}
InlineWorker( fn );

I just don't want fn defined within the worker... call me pedantic ;)