[webkit-dev] New runtime setting: css3TextDecoration

[Simon Fraser]

On Aug 14, 2012, at 10:05 AM, Bruno Abinader <brunoabinader at gmail.com> wrote:

> A series of CSS3 text decoration properties implementations are
> currently on the works. These adds new properties which specifications
> are not finished yet, thus subject to changes. In order to avoid early
> web exposure, a new setting (aka. runtime flag) is going to be added:
> css3TextDecoration. As discussed with Julien, this flag provides
> easier maintenance than adding a whole new compile flag (as seen in
> https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=93863 ).
> 
> This new runtime flag comes disabled by default and is going to affect
> parsing of the following CSS3 text-decoration properties:
> 
> -webkit-text-decoration-line ( https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=90959 )
> -webkit-text-decoration-style ( https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=90958 )
> -webkit-text-decoration-color ( https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=91638 )
> -webkit-text-decoration-skip ( https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=92801 )
> And finally CSS3 specification support for text-decoration (
> https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=92000 )
> 
> The bug related to this implementation is
> https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=93966 .
> 
> Any comments will be kindly appreciated!

I don't think it's appropriate to add settings for CSS features that are under development,
for a number of reasons:

* If we did this for every feature, we'd end up with hundreds of Settings.
* Traditionally, Settings don't tend to get removed, resulting in an ever-accumulating number of Settings.
* If your feature is protected by an ENABLE flag, vendors that want to ship release software can turn it off.
* If developing your feature in trunk is so disruptive that you need a Setting to turn it off for most people, then perhaps you should be working on a branch up to the point where your feature is mostly usable.

Simon