[webkit-dev] WebKit community release

[Joost de Valk]

Dear fellow WebKit developers,

in the last 11 months, lots and lots of work has been done in the WebKit 
community. Bugs have been fixed, new features have been added, the code 
has dramatically changed and improved. Lots of good come from this: we 
have seen fixes slipping into OS X updates and we will probably see a 
majorly improved WebKit in the next major OS X release.

We, however, feel we can do more. Applications like Adium, Colloquy, 
Sandvox, OmniWeb and lots and lots of others, are using WebKit and would 
probably love to be able to have a stable version of WebKit, but with 
all (or at least a lot) of our improvements in it. At this point, these 
applications have three choices:

- use the system WebKit, which is way behind what we are doing right now;
- use a nightly, and face all the consequences;
- pick a nightly and try to make it stable, like the Karelia developers 
are doing now.

If we, as a community, could create a stable "WebKit Community Release", 
we could provide people with our updates. We could point people to it 
who just want to use a better Safari but don't want to download a new 
nightly each day. This would probably also make developers of other 
applications very happy. Lastly, this would be a good way to attract new 
developers, because we would be releasing a product to use for everyone 
out there. This means getting our results available to the general 
public faster in a less unstable form.

By now, if you're still reading, you will think: what would this take?

Well, we as a community would need to really want this. This will mean 
work, especially because we will probably be maintaining two branches, a 
HEAD and a STABLE one. We would probably also need to create some form 
of organizational structure, and do that without losing our sense of 
community. We think however, that everything can be solved, if we are 
all behind this plan.

To summarize, there are three key goals:

1) To make it easier for developers to get access to stable-yet-improved 
builds without waiting for Apple's sometimes lengthy release cycle.
2) To introduce more stability into the bleeding edge in an effort to 
reduce regressions.
3) To provide more angles for developers to work on WebKit with more 
visible results.

Now, we want to hear YOUR opinion. Write large epistels, or two lines 
saying you like or dislike it, but let us hear from you. Let's show 
ourselves just how vibrant our community is.

We'd like to end this with a quote:
"Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark, 
and professionals built the Titanic."

Kind regards,

Mark Rowe (opendarwin.org at bdash.net.nz / http://www.bdash.net.nz)
Joost de Valk (webkit-dev at joostdevalk.nl / http://www.joostdevalk.nl)
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