[webkit-dev] Updating and Enabling the CSS Font Loading Spec

[Benjamin Poulain]

On 7/29/14, 3:33 PM, Bear Travis wrote:
> On 7/29/14, 12:26 PM, "Benjamin Poulain" <benjamin at webkit.org> wrote:
>
>> On 7/29/14, 11:38 AM, Dirk Schulze wrote:
>>>
>>> On Jul 29, 2014, at 7:42 PM, Bear Travis <betravis at adobe.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi All,
>>>>
>>>> WebKit has support for an older version of the CSS Font Loading
>>>> Specification [1], implemented back in 2013 [2]. I would like to bring
>>>> this work in line with the current version of the specification, and
>>>> enable it by default in the nightlies. The specification provides
>>>> support for coordinating font loading: querying if fonts have loaded,
>>>> requesting specific fonts to load, and providing notifications as fonts
>>>> are loading.
>>>>
>>>> Other browsers have a positive outlook on the feature. Chrome has
>>>> already shipped it [3], and Mozilla is in the process of implementing
>>>> it [4].
>>>
>>> Do you want to implement it behind a compile time flag? IMO it is an
>>> important and great API. However, Cameron filed a lot of specifications
>>> but reports while implementing it [1]. So there might still be some
>>> issues to discover.
>>>
>>> I strongly support the implementation though.
>>
>> +1.
>>
>
> Yep, the implementation will be behind a compile time flag (the old
> implementation already is). That said, I would like to have it enabled by
> default in dev builds and the nightlies, both to get it into users’ hands
> for testing and to keep the bots running the tests.

That's okay.

The flags are useful to disable unfinished features when shipping (until 
they are ready). You can enable a flag in nightly if the code is stable 
and has good test coverage, the feature does not need to be complete.

Successful examples are CSS Grid Layout and the Picture Element. Both 
are work in progress, they are enabled in Nightly, but none of that code 
is compiled into the released WebKit.

Benjamin