[webkit-dev] Regarding WebKit Support Libraries

[Brent Fulgham]

Hi Alp,

On Feb 14, 2008, at 2:05 AM, Alp Toker wrote:

> Brent Fulgham wrote:
>> In the medium term, I will probably end up ripping out the  
>> CFNetwork code to replace with native windows calls, though it  
>> would be nice to avoid this needless work.
> The CURL http backend used by the GTK+ and Wx ports works on  
> Windows, though it's not as complete as CFNetwork. It could do the  
> job till the CFNetwork issues are resolved.

In light of Apple's recent notification (today) that CFNetwork would  
no longer be available as open source, I think we've got to shift to  
the CURL back-end.  There are really only three options I see:

1.  If license allows, take the existing APSL CFNetwork sources and  
attempt to use it.  Downsides:  lots of work to achieve existing  
features.  No real upside.
2.  Implement native WinInet versions of features from CFNetwork.   
Downsides:  Single-platform, minimal reuse.  Not much assistance to  
find problems.
3.  Use CURL library.  Benefits:  Assist in CURL development, share  
code with other project targets (read:  I get to bug Alp when I have  
problems).  Downside:  Mostly just the manual effort of  
conditionalizing the CFNetwork code.

Of these, the only one that really seems desirable to me is the CURL  
back-end.

> CFNetwork is integrated into the Win port (consider how HTTP  
> resource errors are handled and passed up to the UI) so swapping it  
> out for something else may have some unfortunate maintenance  
> overhead (ifdefs, more platform splits, and associated build system  
> changes).

Agreed, but I don't see that we have much choice at this point.

-Brent