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>> we're talking, what, a single engineer to backport critical fixes and some testing support. Understatement of the day? :) There is absolutely no way a singl

by niyazpk 12y ago

>> we're talking, what, a single engineer to backport critical fixes and some testing support. Understatement of the day? :) There is absolutely no way a single developer will be able to support huge/complex codebases like web-browsers across platform versions. Also keep in mind that most of the original developers would have moved on from the project - due to lack of interest, greener pastures etc. I am wondering what kind of engineer would be willing to babysit a project like this - and if somebody is willing (for whatever reasons), would they be competent enough?

TheGrassyKnoll 12y ago
> "...what kind of engineer would be willing..." The kind that ends up on a layoff list when the inevitable slowdown occurs. This is a zero-glory, zero-thanks task, with plenty of risk. > "...support huge/complex codebases like web-browsers > across platform versions..." What could go wrong ?
acdha 12y ago
> Understatement of the day? :) There is absolutely no way a single developer will be able to support huge/complex codebases like web-browsers across platform versions. Possibly but I wasn't talking about upgrading to the latest WebKit or the actual patch development – only the work required to backport a critical fix which has already been identified and fixed upstream. That's a fairly normal part of the support process at most places so I wouldn't expect it to be a huge amount of work unless you hit something which required an architectural change to fix. Edit to add a link to the diffs which were posted earlier today: https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/webkit/+/1368e05e8875f00e8d2529fe6050d08b55ea4d87%5E%21/ https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/webkit/+/... https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/webkit/+/7e4405a7a12750ee27325f065b9825c25b40598c%5E%21/ https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/webkit/+/... Obviously not every patch is like that but there also aren't that many critical bugs – I'd be surprised if the engineer:tester ratio was anywhere near even on this kind of work.

by niyazpk 12y ago

TheGrassyKnoll 12y ago

> "...what kind of engineer would be willing..." The kind that ends up on a layoff list when the inevitable slowdown occurs. This is a zero-glory, zero-thanks task, with plenty of risk. > "...support huge/complex codebases like web-browsers > across platform versions..." What could go wrong ?

acdha 12y ago

> Understatement of the day? :) There is absolutely no way a single developer will be able to support huge/complex codebases like web-browsers across platform versions. Possibly but I wasn't talking about upgrading to the latest WebKit or the actual patch development – only the work required to backport a critical fix which has already been identified and fixed upstream. That's a fairly normal part of the support process at most places so I wouldn't expect it to be a huge amount of work unless you hit something which required an architectural change to fix. Edit to add a link to the diffs which were posted earlier today: https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/webkit/+/1368e05e8875f00e8d2529fe6050d08b55ea4d87%5E%21/ https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/webkit/+/... https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/webkit/+/7e4405a7a12750ee27325f065b9825c25b40598c%5E%21/ https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/webkit/+/... Obviously not every patch is like that but there also aren't that many critical bugs – I'd be surprised if the engineer:tester ratio was anywhere near even on this kind of work.