[webkit-dev] New runtime setting: css3TextDecoration

[Julien Chaffraix]

> 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.

ENABLE has a slightly better track of record but I don't think we
should push back on runtime flags just because of that. Having tons of
#ifdef's is a lot more worrying from my perspective, on top of not
being able to build / test the feature before you toggle the flag on
one platform (with all the surprises coming from platform differences
when a port maintainer decide to do so).

> * If your feature is protected by an ENABLE flag, vendors that want to ship release software can turn it off.

That's true, except that the original thread didn't mention any form
of feature flag [1]. Nobody objected at the time and thus patches that
implemented part of the spec arrived on bugzilla: prefixed but not
protected by any flag.

Due to the bar to landing such a change and exposing directly, I
requested that a feature flag be introduced so that patches could be
split into atomic pieces that can be reviewed one at a time (and also
checking that the testing is appropriate).

This update isn't about bringing a discussion about ENABLE vs runtime,
more about mentioning that there will be a new flag contrary to what
was said previously. There is definitely a trend to use runtime flags
on core features lately (region, grid, custom filters...) sometimes
along with ENABLE flags. This should be discussed separately.

Thanks,
Julien

[1] http://lists.webkit.org/pipermail/webkit-dev/2012-July/021715.html