[webkit-dev] On web-exposing features disabled at runtime

[Maciej Stachowiak]

On Feb 10, 2014, at 1:38 PM, Benjamin Poulain <benjamin at webkit.org> wrote:

> 
> Can't we add a compile time flag instead?
> The chromium patch you linked is inelegant and it touches some hot paths.
> 
> Another advantage of compile time flag is Andreas eventually notice when they become useless and remove all the unnecessary cruft ;)

I think on the whole, runtime flags are a better way to do things. They allow features to get much better testing before they are turned on by default, among other things by enabling regression tests to run. They also make it more likely that both configurations keep compiling, regardless of which is default.

It may be that the way Blink handled this is inelegant or inefficient (the latter we could test by measuring) but I'm betting there is some way to do this that actually works. 

Regards,
Maciej