[webkit-dev] webkit editing rewrite?

[Maciej Stachowiak]

On Aug 3, 2010, at 4:38 PM, Darin Adler wrote:

> Inventing a new layer to rebuild editing on top could well be good. Exposing that layer itself to webpages seems like it makes the job even harder rather than easier! Hidden implementation details can be changed more easily than exposed APIs.
> 
> I personally don’t think a complete rewrite is a great idea, nor do I think that using JavaScript is how I’d do it.

I strongly agree with these points.

In addition I'd add, there seem to be multiple large changes proposed under the "complete rewrite" heading:

(1) A new editing API exposed to Web content.
(2) A new set of fundamental abstractions to build editing on top of (which maybe has to be the same as #1?)
(3) A change in implementation language for much of the editing code from C++ to JavaScript.
(4) A from-scratch rewrite of the whole editing subsystem, rather than an incremental refactoring.

Each of these seems like a very high-risk project. Doing all four at once seems to put the risk into the red zone. My idea of how to make these kinds of changes would be to do one at a time, and probably not do #3 or #4 at all. Rewriting is almost never a better option than refactoring.

Regards,
Maciej