[webkit-qt] Proposal for switching image decoders from Qt to WebCore

[Allan Sandfeld Jensen]

On Friday 10 February 2012, Simon Hausmann wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'd like to propose that we switch over to using the WebCore image
> decoders.
> 
> Zoltan has spent some time comparing performance and memory usage between
> the ImageDecoderQt (and the qt plugins for image decoding) and the WebCore
> image decoders, in https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=71555
> 
> My interpretation of the result is that performance and memory usage wise
> there's not much of a difference. However the WebCore image decoders have
> some advantages that are of a different nature:
> 
>     1) They are an actively maintained piece of code. Unfortunately the Qt
> image decoder plugins are subject to less tender loving care. The WebCore
> decoders are used by pretty much all other ports, and from my totally
> biased point of view we have also found them working great for the N9 with
> the Qt based browser/webkit.
> 
>     2) They support image downsampling, which is particularly nice for
> mobile devices with less memory than our gigabyte filled workstations.
> 
>     3) The jpeg decoder supports progressive/interlaced jpegs, which is
> again an nice thing for image loading over slow connections.
> 
> 
> Therefore I'd like to re-open https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=32410
> .
> 
> Any opinions / objections / thoughts?
> 
If it was possible I would like it to be possible for Qt to handle any images 
not supported internally in WebCore. 

Also would it be possible to port the webcore image decoders to Qt so other Qt 
applications can benifit from faster or more featureful decoders?

`Allan