Using webrender as a (temporary) render system

[jaytaph]

We might do some research in the possibility of using webrender (servo/firefox), as our render engine for the time being. I expect that it will take a while before we're at a point that we will create our own webrender.

[bigfatbird]

What implications does that have? Drawing actual boxes from the Dom to the screen?

[emwalker]

If we're going to use another rendering engine as a test bed, I'd go with Gecko over Servo if possible. I was not impressed by Servo's performance when I compiled and ran it locally. (I do not know how Gecko compares in this case.)

[jaytaph]

I have no opion on this. But, i do want to do some research in understanding these engines. If we have a non-optimized (non-gl) renderer that we can setup ourselves, I'm for that option. Again, yet another topic for a lot of research

[jaytaph]

I've also haven't done enough research to understand the necessity of a webrender at this moment. Maybe we can work without any, and have our own system. I don't care about fast, but the less dependencies on other components, the better. (otherwise we could just write a shell over chromium or gecko and call it a day).

[emwalker]

I think the utility of borrowing an existing rendering stage would primarily be to ensure that we get the earlier stages wired up right. But I don't see urgency in this question, since things are very early.