[webkit-dev] Some questions about WebKitSystemInterface

[Jeremy Moskovich]

Hi,

We're running into some issues with the
WebKitSystemInterface<http://trac.webkit.org/browser/trunk/WebKitLibraries>files,
since the source code for the object files in that directory isn't
openly available I was hoping that someone from Apple might have some
insight:

1. It looks like various parts of Cocoa can load the system copy of WebKit,
leading to an error message <http://crbug.com/43842> about the
WKAppKitDrawDecoyWindow
class being doubly defined. Searching the web for this error message leads
to a few <http://forums.adobe.com/thread/665225?tstart=0>
other<http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1311095>examples
of this happening so this seems like a problem for any OS X app
that embeds it's own copy of WebKit and not just the Chromium port.

Looking at the object files in
WebKitSystemInterface<http://trac.webkit.org/browser/trunk/WebKitLibraries>
, it
seems that they contain a few Objective C classes and categories and I worry
that having 2 possibly different copies of the same Objective-C class loaded
into the binary at once might cause problems.

Are we justified in being worried about this?  Would it be possible to
change the symbol names in the object files in the WebKit repository or in
the system version to solve the problem, or prevent it in some other
fashion?

Bug for this issue: https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=41610

2. Separate object files are provided for 10.4..10.6 . While having
per-OS-version object files makes sense for ports that compile a separate
binary for each system version.  Ports such as Chromium release a single
binary that needs to run on multiple system versions.

* Can anyone shed light on the differences between the 10.5 & 10.6 object
files? Is it safe to use the Leopard object file when running on newer
system versions?
* If not, would it be possible to provide a unified version of the object
file which is compatible with both 10.5 & 10.6?

Bug for this issue: https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=41611

Thanks and best regards,
Jeremy
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