[webkit-dev] KWQ Graphics code on Windows

[Kevin Ollivier]

Hi all,

On Jan 16, 2006, at 3:52 PM, David Hyatt wrote:

[snip]

> I would guess that Cairo requires gdiplus.dll.
>
> I think GDI+ is what we should go with initially.  Cairo might be  
> interesting as a way to do SVG eventually, but for now I think we  
> should not define SVG_SUPPORT and basically not worry about SVG.   
> The initial goal should be the bring-up of the HTML rendering  
> portion (SVG can come much later), and I don't think Cairo really  
> provides much of any benefit for that (although I'd be happy to be  
> proven wrong).

Also, the wxWidgets library's drawing classes (wx*DC) are another  
solution to this that is cross-platform. (wxArt2D is a add-on library  
that has SVG support too.) The "con" of course is the added  
dependency, but the pluses are that:

1) cross-platform, so more bang for the buck
2) share the support burden (wxWidgets developers will improve/test  
the graphics APIs as well, meaning less changes you need to make)
3) pre-packaged workarounds for a lot of Win bugs, and GTK too. ;-)

Apps like Mozilla and OpenOffice.org took the approach of writing  
their own "cross-platform" toolkit APIs, with an implementation for  
each platform, and sooner or later support for each platform got out  
of sync, usually with the Mac being on the receiving end of the  
neglect. As someone who tried very, very hard to get Mozilla's  
embedding engine to run properly on Mac, I can tell you that the Mac  
guts were very out of date and very tied into the Mozilla  
application. I looked at OOo long enough to know making it work on  
Mac would be such a challenge that it needed far more than a couple  
of people with a lot of dedication. It's not even known when  
NeoOffice will run on the Intel Macs...

Just my $0.02 but I've found that unless support for other platforms  
is absolutely critical (and thus you can be assured that ample  
resources will be devoted to it), the best solution is the one that  
reduces maintenance, and maximizes developer support, as much as  
possible. A wxWidgets port has already been started, actually (see  
http://developer.berlios.de/svn/?group_id=3786), and I'd definitely  
be happy to help out.

Thanks,

Kevin

> dave
>
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