[webkit-dev] WebKit memory management?

[Paul Pedriana]

As I have mentioned recently on this list, I am investigating the 
possibility of porting WebKit to work within games on gaming platforms. 
Recent help on this has been greatly appreciated and I am going to try 
to stick with WebKit as opposed to Mozilla/Gecko.

A major consideration for the usage of libraries in general on gaming 
and embedded platforms is that their memory usage be controllable. The 
application should be able to set aside a block of RAM and have the 
library use that block of RAM via a user-supplied memory allocator. At 
no time should the library attempt to use any other memory nor use its 
own means to access the user-provided memory. This pattern of library 
development is very important, and most professional commercial library 
software follows this pattern (including all commercial peers of 
WebKit). I am wondering how I might achieve this with WebKit.


I wrote a paper for the C++ Standardization Committee last year which we 
hope helps explain what memory management means to console and embedded 
systems developers. It is available at:
       http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2007/n2271.html

with the following paragraphs that address memory management:
       
http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2007/n2271.html#game_software_issues
       
http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2007/n2271.html#Appendix_7
       
http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2007/n2271.html#Appendix_12
       
http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2007/n2271.html#Appendix_18
       
http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2007/n2271.html#Appendix_26

IMHO, the approaches that are useful for console and embedded 
development also serve to benefit desktop application development. These 
approaches are reasonable and in the end make life better for developers 
of all platforms. Witness the benefits of FireFox's recent memory 
improvements, for example.

Thank you.