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List: webkit-dev
Subject: Re: [webkit-dev] Proposal for an "intent to" process for web-exposed features
From: Maciej Stachowiak <mjs () apple ! com>
Date: 2020-02-27 17:22:09
Message-ID: E7D73DE7-F504-4B4F-A093-E6B2C9E11E53 () apple ! com
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I think we should have some structure, not just freeform emails. We can start with a simple template, but \
there's some info that folks almost always want, so it's easier if it's included in the first place, \
rather than needing predictable follow-up questions
I also like having a title pattern, because that makes it easier to search email to find all things that \
fit the category.
Basically, since for any given feature email, there's many potential readers and only one sender, so it \
seems reasonable to ask the sender to do a little extra
I had some sample templates (much simpler than the ones used by Chrome) which I will dig out and send \
here.
> On Feb 26, 2020, at 11:08 PM, Ryosuke Niwa <rniwa@webkit.org> wrote:
>
> Thanks for starting this discussion.
>
> On Wed, Feb 26, 2020 at 10:33 PM Frédéric Wang <fwang@igalia.com <mailto:fwang@igalia.com>> wrote:
>
> The idea of an "intent to" process has been raised several times in the past (e.g. in our 2020 goals \
> [1]) and some people already use it informally, but it does not seem that we have any agreement right \
> now. Such a process would help to coordinate changes internally (between port maintainers and \
> contributors) and externally (with standard groups, users and other implementers). For the former \
> point, see [2][3][4] for examples of how coordination is not smooth right now. The latter point will \
> give a better understanding of what's happening in WebKit and help web developer advocacy.
> Having some kind of a process to announce a new Web facing API or behavior change is a good idea. In \
> fact, we technically still have such a process although nobody seems to be using these days: \
> https://trac.webkit.org/wiki/AddingFeatures <https://trac.webkit.org/wiki/AddingFeatures>
> The Mozilla and Chromium projects have their own process [5] [6]. We can probably start with minimal \
> rules and refine them in the future. We can even make it mandatory only for new web platform features \
> developed under a runtime preference for now (i.e. excluding small features for which it's not worth \
> introducing a flag, behavior changes or deprecation/removal). Below is a proposal based on Mozilla's \
> one.
> WebKit tends to err on the side of simpler rules so let's stick with that. I don't think we need an \
> email template for example (I hate templates; all those intent to X emails on other engines' mailing \
> lists look so silly).
> 1. Email webkit-dev with an intent to prototype.
>
> I really dislike the idea of putting features into different stages like prototyping, etc... I'd prefer \
> a much simpler approach in which a new feature or any behavior chance being worked on is announced on \
> webkit-dev.
> In fact, I don't think we should have any rule about how emails are titled, etc... Emails just need to \
> contain a certain set of information we need to evaluate whether a given feature / behavior change is \
> good or not.
> Rather, what we need a guidance on is at which point something becomes a feature or a behavior change \
> significant enough that an announcement on webkit-dev is necessary. For example, one could argue that \
> any bug fix in Web facing API will affect its behavior. However, I don't think we want to be tracking \
> every one of those behavior changes in WebKit on webkit-dev.
> Similarly, adding a new API has multitude of scales. On one hand, there is ResizeObserver and there is \
> adding pointerLockElement on ShadowRoot <https://trac.webkit.org/changeset/209648/webkit>. At which \
> point, should we be making webkit-dev announcement. Again, I don't think we want to be tracking the \
> addition of every new DOM property, JS API, etc... on webkit-dev.
I personally think every web platform facing change should be announced, but it's ok if some broader \
feature announcements cover every property and attribute in the spec at the time, even if they don't land \
all at once. On the other hand, in specs like HTML or DOM, many individual new markup attributes or DOM \
properties are a feature in themselves.
>
> 2. Implement the feature normally behind a off-by-default preference.
>
> This is not a preference, it's a WebKit policy: https://webkit.org/feature-policy/ \
> <https://webkit.org/feature-policy/>
I think he was using "preference" to mean "setting", not to suggest that this is merely a preference and \
not required.
>
> 3. Email webkit-dev with an intent to ship.
>
> I don't think this makes much sense in WebKit since there is no such a thing as shipping in WebKit. \
> Each port maintainers decide which set of features will be enabled at when.
> Or do you mean that we enabling new feature / behavior by default? If so, then making such an \
> announcement on webkit-dev requirement for Web facing feature / behavior change makes sense to me. But \
> we should never use term such as "shipping".
> 4. If there's no negative feedback, ship (ports maintainer can still disable the feature if they want \
> to).
> We should probably adopt the same 5 business day policy here.
>
> II/ Intent to prototype template
>
> I don't think a template is necessary. We don't have a template for nominating reviewer, committer, \
> etc...
> We should just have a list of topics / details / information each email should contain. We should \
> probably have: Summary of new feature / behavior change
> Bug URL
> Spec URL / PR / Issue
> Status in other browsers
> I really don't think links to the related emails on webkit-dev, etc... is necessary because anyone \
> interested in a given feature / behavior change will surely check the bug, etc...
> On the other hand, we should probably also create a way to track all these new features and behavior \
> changes in some central place. For new Web facing features, we have: https://webkit.org/status/ \
> <https://webkit.org/status/>
> We should probably create some other page / tracking tool where all behavior changes to existing Web \
> APIs are tracked. And updating of https://webkit.org/status/ <https://webkit.org/status/> as well as \
> this new tracking tool should probably a part of the requirement of adding a new feature / making a Web \
> facing behavioral change.
> - R. Niwa
>
> _______________________________________________
> webkit-dev mailing list
> webkit-dev@lists.webkit.org
> https://lists.webkit.org/mailman/listinfo/webkit-dev
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<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body \
style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div \
class=""><br class=""></div>I think we should have some structure, not just freeform emails. We can start \
with a simple template, but there's some info that folks almost always want, so it's easier if it's \
included in the first place, rather than needing predictable follow-up questions<div class=""><br \
class=""></div><div class="">I also like having a title pattern, because that makes it easier to search \
email to find all things that fit the category.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div \
class="">Basically, since for any given feature email, there's many potential readers and only one \
sender, so it seems reasonable to ask the sender to do a little extra </div><div class=""><br \
class=""></div><div class="">I had some sample templates (much simpler than the ones used by Chrome) \
which I will dig out and send here.<br class=""><div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div \
class="">On Feb 26, 2020, at 11:08 PM, Ryosuke Niwa <<a href="mailto:rniwa@webkit.org" \
class="">rniwa@webkit.org</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><div \
dir="ltr" class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div dir="ltr" \
class=""><div class="">Thanks for starting this discussion.</div><div dir="ltr" class=""><br \
class=""></div><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Feb 26, 2020 at 10:33 \
PM Frédéric Wang <<a href="mailto:fwang@igalia.com" class="">fwang@igalia.com</a>> wrote:<br \
class=""></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px \
0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"> \
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" class=""><div id="gmail-m_-3689131201992439938magicdomid5" class=""><br \
class=""> </div>
<div id="gmail-m_-3689131201992439938magicdomid92" class=""><span class="">The idea of
an "intent to" process has been raised several times in the past</span><span class=""> (e.g. in \
our 2020 goals [1])</span><span class=""> and some people already
use it informally, but it does not seem that we have any
agreement right now. Such a process would help to coordinate
changes internally (between port maintainers and contributors)
and externally (with standard groups, users and other
implementers). </span><span class="">For the former
point, s</span><span class="">ee [</span><span class="">2</span><span class="">][</span><span \
class="">3</span><span class="">][</span><span class="">4</span><span class="">] for examples of how \
coordination is not smooth right now.</span><span class=""> The latter
point will give a better understanding of what's happening in
WebKit and help web developer advocacy.</span></div></div></blockquote><div class=""><br \
class=""></div><div class="">Having some kind of a process to announce a new Web facing API or behavior \
change is a good idea. In fact, we technically still have such a process although nobody seems to be \
using these days: <a href="https://trac.webkit.org/wiki/AddingFeatures" \
class="">https://trac.webkit.org/wiki/AddingFeatures</a></div><div class=""></div><div class=""><br \
class=""></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px \
0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div \
bgcolor="#FFFFFF" class=""> <div id="gmail-m_-3689131201992439938magicdomid94" class=""><span \
class="">The Mozilla and Chromium projects have their own process [</span><span class="">5</span><span \
class="">] [</span><span class="">6</span><span class="">]. We can probably start with minimal rules and \
refine them in the future. We can even make it mandatory only for new
web platform features </span><span class="">developed under
a runtime preference </span><span class="">for now (i.e. </span><span class="">excluding small
features for which it's not worth introducing a flag, behavior
changes or deprecation/removal</span><span class="">). Below is
a proposal based on Mozilla's one.</span></div></div></blockquote><div class=""><br \
class=""></div><div class="">WebKit tends to err on the side of simpler rules so let's stick with that. I \
don't think we need an email template for example (I hate templates; all those intent to X emails on \
other engines' mailing lists look so silly).</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><blockquote \
class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px \
0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div \
bgcolor="#FFFFFF" class=""> <div id="gmail-m_-3689131201992439938magicdomid25" class=""><span \
class="">1. Email webkit-dev with an intent to prototype.</span></div></div></blockquote><div \
class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I really dislike the idea of putting features into different \
stages like prototyping, etc... I'd prefer a much simpler approach in which a new feature or any behavior \
chance being worked on is announced on webkit-dev.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">In \
fact, I don't think we should have any rule about how emails are titled, etc... Emails just need to \
contain a certain set of information we need to evaluate whether a given feature / behavior change is \
good or not.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Rather, what we need a guidance on is at \
which point something becomes a feature or a behavior change significant enough that an announcement on \
webkit-dev is necessary. For example, one could argue that any bug fix in Web facing API will affect its \
behavior. However, I don't think we want to be tracking every one of those behavior changes in WebKit on \
webkit-dev.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Similarly, adding a new API has multitude \
of scales. On one hand, there is ResizeObserver and there is <a \
href="https://trac.webkit.org/changeset/209648/webkit" class="">adding pointerLockElement on \
ShadowRoot</a>. At which point, should we be making webkit-dev announcement. Again, I don't think we want \
to be tracking the addition of every new DOM property, JS API, etc... on \
webkit-dev.</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><div><br class=""></div>I \
personally think every web platform facing change should be announced, but it's ok if some broader \
feature announcements cover every property and attribute in the spec at the time, even if they don't land \
all at once. On the other hand, in specs like HTML or DOM, many individual new markup attributes or DOM \
properties are a feature in themselves.</div><div><br class=""></div><div><br class=""><blockquote \
type="cite" class=""><div class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div dir="ltr" \
class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div class="gmail_quote"><div class=""><br \
class=""></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px \
0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div \
bgcolor="#FFFFFF" class=""><div id="gmail-m_-3689131201992439938magicdomid25" class=""> 2. Implement \
the feature normally behind a off-by-default preference.</div></div></blockquote><div class=""><br \
class=""></div><div class="">This is not a preference, it's a WebKit policy: <a \
href="https://webkit.org/feature-policy/" \
class="">https://webkit.org/feature-policy/</a></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><div><br \
class=""></div><div>I think he was using "preference" to mean "setting", not to suggest that this is \
merely a preference and not required.</div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div \
class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div dir="ltr" \
class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div class="gmail_quote"><div class=""><br class=""></div><blockquote \
class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px \
0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div \
bgcolor="#FFFFFF" class=""> <div id="gmail-m_-3689131201992439938magicdomid27" class=""><span \
class="">3. Email webkit-dev with an intent to ship.</span></div></div></blockquote><div class=""><br \
class=""></div><div class="">I don't think this makes much sense in WebKit since there is no such a thing \
as shipping in WebKit. Each port maintainers decide which set of features will be enabled at \
when.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Or do you mean that we enabling new feature / \
behavior by default? If so, then making such an announcement on webkit-dev requirement for Web facing \
feature / behavior change makes sense to me. But we should never use term such as "shipping".</div><div \
class=""><br class=""></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px \
0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div \
bgcolor="#FFFFFF" class=""> <div id="gmail-m_-3689131201992439938magicdomid28" class=""><span \
class="">4. If there's no negative feedback, ship (ports maintainer can still disable the
feature if they want to).</span></div></div></blockquote><div class=""><br class=""></div><div \
class="">We should probably adopt the same 5 business day policy here.</div><div class=""><br \
class=""></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px \
0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div \
bgcolor="#FFFFFF" class=""> <div id="gmail-m_-3689131201992439938magicdomid30" class=""><span \
class="">II/ Intent to prototype template</span></div></div></blockquote><div class=""><br \
class=""></div><div class="">I don't think a template is necessary. We don't have a template for \
nominating reviewer, committer, etc... </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">We \
should just have a list of topics / details / information each email should contain. We should probably \
have:</div><div class=""><ul class=""><li class="">Summary of new feature / behavior change</li><li \
class="">Bug URL</li><li class="">Spec URL / PR / Issue</li><li class="">Status in other \
browsers</li></ul></div><div class="">I really don't think links to the related emails on webkit-dev, \
etc... is necessary because anyone interested in a given feature / behavior change will surely check the \
bug, etc...</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">On the other hand, we should probably \
also create a way to track all these new features and behavior changes in some central place. For new Web \
facing features, we have: <a href="https://webkit.org/status/" \
class="">https://webkit.org/status/</a></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">We should \
probably create some other page / tracking tool where all behavior changes to existing Web APIs are \
tracked. And updating of <a href="https://webkit.org/status/" class="">https://webkit.org/status/</a> as \
well as this new tracking tool should probably a part of the requirement of adding a new feature / making \
a Web facing behavioral change.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">- R. Niwa</div><div \
class=""><br class=""></div></div></div></div></div></div></div> \
_______________________________________________<br class="">webkit-dev mailing list<br class=""><a \
href="mailto:webkit-dev@lists.webkit.org" class="">webkit-dev@lists.webkit.org</a><br \
class="">https://lists.webkit.org/mailman/listinfo/webkit-dev<br class=""></div></blockquote></div><br \
class=""></div></body></html>
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