[webkit-dev] New runtime setting: css3TextDecoration

[Ryosuke Niwa]

On Tue, Aug 14, 2012 at 11:56 AM, Julien Chaffraix <
julien.chaffraix at gmail.com> wrote:

> > 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 a runtime flag incurs runtime cost.


> Having tons of #ifdef's is a lot more worrying from my perspective,


Having a runtime flag is significantly worse in that it affects end users.
Having a compile flag is a painful for developers but has absolutely zero
cost for end users.

> * 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.
>

I had certainly assumed that this was done under a new build flag. If that
were not the case, I expected relevant reviewers to r- those patches. Maybe
this was a bad assumption to make.

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.


I strongly object to implementing this feature behind a setting. It should
be developed under a build flag.

- Ryosuke
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.webkit.org/pipermail/webkit-dev/attachments/20120814/db8ec446/attachment.html>