Re: WebKit release cycle and dependency request

["Kalle Vahlman" <kalle vahlman gmail com>]

2008/4/16, Ross Burton <ross openedhand com>:
> On Wed, 2008-04-16 at 08:10 +0100, Alp Toker wrote:
>  > I'm also taking this opportunity to request an external dependency for
>  > GNOME and to poke Ross about including WebKit in the Mobile Platform
>  > (not much happened since it was proposed in June).
>
> As much as I'm a WebKit fan, we're (OpenedHand, that is) are trying to
>  replicate Chris Blizzard's performance/size/etc results for the "mobile"
>  Firefox 3 to see what the results are like.  The problem is I'm torn
>  over saying "WebKit/GTK+ is in the platform", or wimping out and
>  recommending both WebKit/GTK+ and Firefox 3.  Currently I'm leaning
>  towards putting WebKit/GTK+ in the platform, and if people wish to use
>  Gecko, they can.

One could argue the following:

  - The native UI building technology for Gecko is XUL
  - The native UI building technology for WebKit-GTK+ is GTK+
  - Having one (just one) web content engine in[1] the platform is a must
  - What Alp said, WebKit-GTK+ is a totally GNOME/GTK+-committed
project[2] while Mozilla tends to have its own[3] direction in
development. This is quite fine I think, but it also means that
WebKit-GTK+ will tend to have more (possibilities for) integration
with the rest of the stack.
  - Having a default engine should not scare away people caring about
which engine they use if it happens to be the other one.
  - Epiphany made the jump on the desktop side, I wouldn't be
surprised if devhelp and yelp would follow the lead (even if there
hasn't been decisions on that, haven't noticed any at least). It would
be good to be consistent in this front.

One positive note is that I don't think performance will have
significant differences after the crazy browser optimization race is
over (browser developers, please please continue to try to prove me
wrong! ;).

So taking WebKit-GTK+ as the default web content engine for GNOME
Mobile makes sense due to the release cycle, API, technology and
design compatibility with GNOME, just like it made sense for Epiphany
to do so. Gecko will always be available to those who want it, like in
the case of distros that are defaulting to Firefox.

[1] or rather, as default to
[2] as in, its API is designed for GTK+ usage (not just bolted on) and
it is rapidly adopting GNOME-related technologies (like soup)
[3] though rather satisfyingly parallel by all means

-- 
Kalle Vahlman, zuh iki fi
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