[webkit-dev] Proposal for Support Library repository

[Mike Emmel]

Most of the webkit ports outside of the Mac are dependent on a number
of support libraries and build tools. In some cases these are modified
and or later versions then those generally shipped with the system.
In general no one has the right versions of all libraries installed.


The proposal is to create a new svn root called say webkitlibs  that
would act as a place to keep source  versions of the various libraries
and uncommon tools used with webkit.

This would allow the use of a simple script in many cases that could
check the local versions and grab only needed remote versions of
various libs.

Later prebuilt support libs could be added. In some cases say KDE or
gdk the repository could simply house scripts that grabbed the right
versions from the original server.


Trying to track down all the libraries needed to build webkit for each
platform is quite problematic today. This would also make it easy to
create readme and wiki instructions later
as webkit usage expands.

The reason to go with a second repository is it will in general  no
one person needs all possible downloads and adding them to the WebKit
repository would quickly bloat the download size.

This could also if wanted become a place to house other open source
projects that build on webkit.