TypedArray Slice Polyfill

Node v0.12 changed from a native implementation of TypedArrays to the V8 engine implementation. Unfortunately during this time the slice method on the TypedArrays had not been implemented yet. There is another method that is similar, subarray, however, it creates a live view of the array rather than a shallow copy, thus editing either the original array or the subarray would have effects on each other.

The purpose of this polyfill to restore the shallow copy functionality in TypedArrays for v0.12. v0.10 and v4+ all contain a functional slice method implementation.

Installation

npm install typedarray-slice

Usage

As this is a polyfill it does not need to export anything, simply require the module at the beginning of your app and all TypedArrays will have the slice method added to their prototype

e.g.,

// index.js
require('typedarray-slice');

Notes

This polyfill is mostly based on the algorithm provided by The MDN article on polyfilling old browsers to support slice in DOM lists, however, it has been adapted for use in TypedArrays and these arrays will be of the same type as the original array they were sliced from.