Bug 101094 - META: Make it possible to build WebKit without the Widget tree
Summary: META: Make it possible to build WebKit without the Widget tree
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: WebKit
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Frames (show other bugs)
Version: 528+ (Nightly build)
Hardware: Unspecified Unspecified
: P2 Normal
Assignee: Nobody
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2012-11-02 13:35 PDT by Eric Seidel (no email)
Modified: 2012-11-05 12:13 PST (History)
4 users (show)

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Description Eric Seidel (no email) 2012-11-02 13:35:09 PDT
META: Make it possible to build WebKit without the Widget tree

Widgets exist to allow WebKit to interact with native OS scrollbars and views.  iframes, plugins, and scrollbars all have corresponding entries into a Widget tree.

Widgets are only needed for platforms (like Mac WebKit1) which expose these objects in the native OS's "view" tree or by windowed plugins (which get a native HWND or NSView*).  Both of these are now considered "old" technolgies and 

However, Mac WebKit1, is now old-news, and many platforms (like Chromium) don't support windowed plugins anymore.

We can't remove widgets entirely yet.  But having a wiget-less codepath will pave the way for their eventual removal, and obsolete a *huge* set of widget-related crashers and make several features (like <iframe seamless>) much easier to implement in the widget-less world.