Re: Web IDL Garden Hose

On 9/27/09 3:30 AM, Brendan Eich wrote:
>> I believe we could get rid of custom deleters from the Web platform if
>> Firefox and IE remove support for custom deleters in LocalStorage,
>> refuse to add it back, and refuse to implement it for DOMStringMap. If
>> that happened, I'm sure other browsers and the spec would follow suit.
>> I don't think I can convince my colleagues to remove the behavior from
>> WebKit if Gecko and Trident continue to support it.
>
> I'll see what the relevant Mozilla WebAPI hackers think, if they're not
> reading this thread. At this point I suspect it is "too late", in the
> sense that we'd be taking risks with plaform compatibility we don't
> accept in our release version/compatibility plan.

Well, that depends on what we mean by "remove".  Probably not removable 
in Gecko 1.9.1.x security updates.  Probably removable (in my opinion) 
in Gecko 1.9.3.  Possibly in Gecko 1.9.2 if the decision is made soon.

What I don't have is data on how much the syntax is used, or how likely 
Trident is to remove it too.  If we remove it and Trident doesn't and 
that means Webkit keeps shipping it and the spec doesn't change as a 
result (which sounds to me like what Maciej is saying will be the 
outcome in this situation; the spec part is my guess based on the .tags 
experience) then from our point of view it's just wasted effort and web 
developers being pissed off at us for not implementing The Spec (without 
understanding that it's an early draft) and then we'd end up just having 
to put deleters back in but lose a bunch of goodwill.  That's a strictly 
losing proposition for us.

If Webkit commits to removing if we remove and the editor commits to 
removing from the spec in that circumstance, then I think we could make 
the removal stick no matter what Trident does...

-Boris

P.S.  I _am_ ccing es-discuss on this as on my other mails, but of 
course that list bounces all mail from me, since I'm not a member.  If 
someone cares about letting that list's membership know that they're 
missing part of the discussion and is able to do so, please go for it.

Received on Sunday, 27 September 2009 19:24:08 UTC