Docs: Extensions

doc/articles/Extensions.md

@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+# Extensions {#Extensions}
+
+`webgpu.h` is designed to be an extensible and forward-compatible API.
+The following types of extensions are supported:
+
+```
+wgpuPrefixNewFunction
+
+WGPUPrefixNewObject
+wgpuPrefixNewObjectNewMethod
+wgpuOldObjectPrefixNewMethod
+
+WGPUPrefixNewEnum
+WGPUPrefixNewEnum_NewValue
+WGPUOldEnum_PrefixNewValue
+
+WGPUPrefixNewStruct
+
+WGPUPrefixNewBitflagType
+WGPUPrefixNewBitflagType_NewValue
+WGPUOldBitflagType_PrefixNewValue
+
+WGPUPrefixNewCallback
+
+WGPU_PREFIX_NEW_CONSTANT
+```
+
+("Prefix" is the name of the implementation that owns the extension, if any; see below.)
+
+When an application is running against an unknown `webgpu.h` implementation, extension support may be detected at runtime as follows:
+
+- New functions/methods may be detected via @ref wgpuGetProcAddress().
+    - New objects may be detected by the presence of the methods that create them.
+    - New (root) structs and callback types are only relevant if the methods that accept them exist.
+- New enums, bit flags, [chained structs](@ref StructChaining) are available iff enabled. Like other features, these must be both detected and enabled:
+    - Device features are detected via @ref wgpuAdapterGetFeatures() and enabled via @ref WGPUDeviceDescriptor::requiredFeatures.
+    - Instance features are detected via @ref wgpuGetInstanceCapabilities() and enabled via @ref WGPUInstanceDescriptor::capabilities.
+
+The following design principles should be followed to ensure future extensibility:
+
+- Enums always have a `Force32 = 0x7FFFFFFF` value to force them to be 32-bit (and have a stable ABI representation).
+- Bitflag types are always 64-bit.
+- Structures should be extensible (have a `nextInChain`), or at least be associated with some struct (e.g. child, sibling, or parent) that is extensible.
+
+Note also:
+
+- Whenever necessary a version `2` or implementation-specific version of an existing method or type can be added.
+
+## Registry of prefixes and enum blocks
+
+Implementation extensions **should**, and multi-implementation extensions **must**, use the naming conventions listed above with the prefixes listed here.
+
+Implementation-specific and multi-implementation extensions **must** not use block `0x0000_????` when adding values to existing enums.
+
+|                    | Prefix       | Enum Block    | Description
+|--------------------|--------------|---------------|------------
+| Core               | (none)       | `0x0000_????` | Extensions that are required to implement (e.g. added after 1.0).
+| Multi-Vendor       | (none)       | `0x0001_????` | Extensions that are optional to implement (e.g. platform-specific extensions). *TBD if enum values in this block may become required, or if they would be aliased into block `0x0000_????` first.*
+| Compatibility Mode | *TBD*        | `0x0002_????` | **Special:** implementations that don't support Compatibility Mode must ignore any chained structs with @ref WGPUSType values in this block, instead of erroring. This block must only be used for Compat additions that can be ignored without affecting the semantics of a non-erroring program.
+| wgpu-native        | `Wgpu`       | `0x0003_????` |
+| Emscripten         | `Emscripten` | `0x0004_????` |
+| Dawn               | `Dawn`       | `0x0005_????` |
+
+## Registry of extension bit flag values
+
+Implementation-specific and multi-implementation extensions **should** (*TBD: **must**?*) register new bit flag values of existing bit flag types here.
+
+Core and Compatibility Mode bits will always be in the least-significant 53 bits, because the JS API can only represent 53 bits.
+Therefore, extended bit flag values **should** be in the most-significant 11 bits, overflowing into the most-significant end of the least-significant 53 bits if necessary (or avoiding doing so by adding a new bit flag type entirely).
+
+- (None have been registered yet!)

doc/articles/index.md

@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 - \subpage Asynchronous-Operations
 - \subpage Errors
+- \subpage Extensions
 - \subpage Ownership
 - \subpage Surfaces
 - \subpage SentinelValues