[webkit-dev] Client-based Geolocation

[Steve Block]

> (1) Adds a level of indirection that may not be necessary in these cases.
It's true, there's now one more level of indirection. The
non-client-based implementation uses Geolocation ->
GeolocationServiceFoo. The client-based implementation uses
Geolocation -> GeolocationController -> GeolocationServiceFoo. I don't
think this is significant, especially as the Controller/Client pattern
is well established.

> (2) Harder to find the back end code, since the common pattern is to have platform-specific
> implementations in WebCore/platform
True, though as I mentioned previously, I'm not sure that Geolocation
really fits into the category of 'platform-specific implementations' -
there are too many decisions to be made by the embedder.

> (3) There may not be a one-to-one mapping between back-end implementations and WebKit public
> APIs.
So far, there is a one-to-one mapping. My argument is that this likely
to remain the case because embedders want to have close control over
their Geolocation implementation (for example, when to enable a GPS if
present, which URL to use for network-based lookups, how to handle
position caching, how frequently to poll for updates etc). While it
might be possible to have a GeolocationServiceLinux in
WebCore/platform/linux, for example, that would provide position
information for all Linux-based ports, I think that in practice, the
embedder wants to have more control than this approach permits. So I
think there will be little, if any code duplication between ports. If
we later find that multiple ports are duplicating code by using a
common platform library, for example, we could consider adding a
shared WebCore utility to provide access to this.

> So that explains the upsides, but you didn't address the downsides I cited.
Sorry, I hope I've done so now.

> Maybe the positives outweigh the negatives,
Yes, that's exactly my opinion.

Steve

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