tf.data does not work in Edge Browser

[DJCordhose]

TensorFlow.js version

1.0.1

Browser version

Windows 10, Edge 44.17763.1.0

Describe the problem or feature request

loading data using tf.data does not work, since

https://github.com/tensorflow/tfjs-data/blob/master/src/iterators/byte_chunk_iterator.ts#L96

uses

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/TextDecoder

which is not supported in Edge.

Code to reproduce the bug / link to feature request

https://djcordhose.github.io/crash-risk-calculator/

[Kriyszig]

Can we add a polyfill for TextDecoder? We are using it decode UTF-8 encoded entities so a polyfill specific to UTF-8 should be enough.
Maybe we can just use https://gist.github.com/Yaffle/5458286 [comes with the license attached]

[kangyizhang]

tfjs-core is also using TextDecoder.

@dsmilkov what do you think?

[dsmilkov]

Hi @Kriyszig and @DJCordhose,

Since Edge is moving to Chromium, it will have built-in TextDecoder. We won't be baking polyfill into tf.data to keep the library size small and avoid extra code for browsers/platforms that do have it built-in.

You have two options:

1. (Recommended) Provide your own polyfill. E.g. see text-encoding library
2. Provide your own platform which is an object that implements our Platform interface and provide your own encode() and decode() implementations. See PlatformReactNative() as an example.