[webkit-dev] to reitveld or not to reitveld

[Peter Kasting]

On Sat, Jun 6, 2009 at 1:48 AM, Mark Rowe <mrowe at apple.com> wrote:

> Per Ojan's original email it is not as simple as adding a few URLs to some
> scripts, code changes would be needed to make it suitable for our purposes.
>  Let's try and avoid hyperbole: it makes it difficult to have a reasonable
> discussion.
>

I'm not trying to be hyperbolic.  It is my sincere opinion that in fact the
changes are as simple as I mentioned.

Of the issues that Ojan mentioned in his original email, I see three that
> would need to be addressed before we could consider adopting Rietveld:
> - Currently tied to AppEngine.
>

I don't understand why this is problematic in the least, any more than
saying "Bugzilla is currently tied to being run by Bugzilla".  Why does it
matter what the backing implementation of Rietveld is?


> - Doesn't work with diff's generated by git.
>

I didn't realize git was formally supported by WebKit.  I assume git can
generate diff/patch/svn-compatible diffs with some options (I am not a git
user).

- UI is intimidating to newcomers.  This is clearly subjective, but since
> the goal here is to make the review process friendlier, especially for new
> contributors, I think it deserves calling out.
>

I find the Rietveld UI mostly easy to understand with one or two learning
bits.  It didn't intimidate me when I started using it.  It certainly was
far easier to understand than Bugzilla's review methods.  In my mind this is
a plus, not a minus.

Subjective, less important issues:
> - I'm not sure about keeping patches and the bugs that they address in
> separate systems.  It seems that discussion about a bug can end up split
> between the two systems.
>

This is not really much different from how right now bugs and IRC can both
serve as discussion points for an issue.  Generally in Chromium today bugs
get discussed on the bug, and patches get discussed on the patch.  If a
patch raises issues with a bug, we usually comment on the bug and note on
the patch as appropriate ("sorry, I don't think this bug should be
addressed.  See comments there.")


> - It's hard to spell.  Retyping it to fix the spelling makes me sad.
>

Other than this email series, I've never actually had to spell Rietveld.
 Certainly not while submitting, editing, reviewing, or landing patches :).
 I think this is irrelevant.

In summary, I did not realize that the WebKit community was even interested
in changing their review system before seeing these emails, but if they are,
I sincerely believe that Rietveld is far better than Bugzilla for patch
review and strong consideration should be given to simply dropping it in,
which I believe would be very easy to do.

PK

PK
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