[webkit-dev] Is the wxWidgets port maintained?

[Simon Hausmann]

On Tuesday, February 12, 2013 03:07:33 AM Dirk Pranke wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 7:44 PM, Benjamin Poulain <benjamin at webkit.org> 
wrote:
> > I am sorry, I should have given more context.
> > 
> > There is visibly a growing discontent in the community about the cost
> > imposed from small ports. Just two weeks ago, there were 2 threads
> > discussing the cost of "peripheral ports".
> > I am convinced a part of this is technical. The project has not changed
> > its
> > policies while the number of ports was growing. While duplicated code and
> > interfaces was okay when there were only 3 ports, it has become a pain
> > when
> > we have 7+ ports to updates ...
> > In his email "WebKit Wishes", Eric said "It can’t be the job of the core
> > maintainers to care about all the peripheral ports which contribute very
> > little core code."
> 
> I think it was an entirely reasonable question to ask if the wx port
> was being maintained, but I'm surprised by how this thread has
> evolved.
> 
> There is a lot of discussion going on about the cost of so many ports,
> but not much about the benefits.

Indeed. For example the small ports have successfully attracted people in the 
past to join the project. Those people built skills and gained visibility in 
in trunk, certainly helping them to get hired later by other bigger companies 
to continue to work on WebKit.

> Speaking personally, even before I joined Google, I was drawn to
> WebKit partially because it was used on such a wide variety of
> projects and in so many different ways. I was fortunate to be able to
> get a job that allows me to contribute to it, and I have found the
> work that I've done to help maintain the "peripheral" ports, while not
> pain free, quite rewarding (although I would be quite happy if it was
> less costly, of course).
> 
> My point is that I think that lots of ports are part of what makes
> WebKit the goodness it is. Maybe I'm alone here, or at best part of a
> minority, but I wanted us to not lose sight of this idea.

It's indeed an expressed goal of the project to be portable and to provide 
infrastructure. Also quoting from the project goals: "In addition, we strive 
to create a courteous, welcoming environment that feels approachable to 
newcomers."


Simon