[Development] Assistant WebKit/WebEngine support

[Eike Ziller]

> On Jun 28, 2019, at 14:46, Palaraja, Kavindra <KPalaraja at luxoft.com> wrote:
> 
> On 28.06.19, 12:22, "Eike Ziller" <Eike.Ziller at qt.io> wrote:
> 
> ....
> 
>> From your response, I'm only gathering two options:
> 
>    There are other options.
>    https://lists.qt-project.org/pipermail/development/2019-June/036712.html
>    summarizes many of them.
>    Additionally “strip down QtWebEngine or QtWebKit and support that”.
>    Or, separating "plain and simple API documentation" to be displayed directly an Qt Creator/Assistant from “fancy tutorials” to be displayed by a browser of the user’s choice.
> 
> Just curious, how would you define "plain and simple API documentation”?

A defined subset of static HTML+CSS. What subset of HTML+CSS exactly, is up for discussion of course. And yes, that option probably requires either fixing some things in QTextBrowser, or providing a different means of rendering non-dynamic HTML+CSS, depending on the outcome of that discussion.

_None_ of the options come for free.

> Developer documentation is split up into four categories:
> 
> * API Reference -- the inline source code comments
> * Conceptual documentation -- The qdoc files that we use to explain how to use large modules
> * Code samples -- The snippets and the Examples
> * Strings -- error messages and Creator's strings
> 
> Right now, with qdoc, all we have is "plain and simple API documentation", the first three categories.

Technically that is not quite true, since qdoc doesn’t restrict what kind of CSS + templates you use, which can also contain any JavaScript and any CSS.

> None of this is fancy yet Creator/Assistant can't display it correctly.
> 
>> 1. Live with it and hope that somehow this will solve itself in the future -- there is no evidence from the past years that this is going to happen. Recall that the ticket we are still debating over is from March 2016.
> 
>> 2. Give QtWebEngine at least a try, let the users decide in a BETA phase.
> 
>    - a tiny percentage of users use Betas
>    - there already is quite some controversy in this email thread
> 
> I don’t see why this should be a controversy. I understand and empathize with the reaction from some of the community members, but I think as people who have worked in this product and industry for a while, we should be able to discuss this in a respectful, professional, clear headed manner.

Maybe my use of the word “controversy” is wrong, but I didn’t mean that this should be anything disrespectful, unprofessional or hot-headed.

So let me reformulate:
Already in this email thread I do not see a broad consensus that using QtWebEngine for Qt Creator and Assistant would be desirable.

>    Br, Eike
> 
>> Kavindra.
>> 
>> 
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> 
>    --
>    Eike Ziller
>    Principal Software Engineer
> 
>    The Qt Company GmbH
>    Rudower Chaussee 13
>    D-12489 Berlin
>    eike.ziller at qt.io
>    http://qt.io
>    Geschäftsführer: Mika Pälsi,
>    Juha Varelius, Mika Harjuaho
>    Sitz der Gesellschaft: Berlin, Registergericht: Amtsgericht Charlottenburg, HRB 144331 B
> 
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
Eike Ziller
Principal Software Engineer

The Qt Company GmbH
Rudower Chaussee 13
D-12489 Berlin
eike.ziller at qt.io
http://qt.io
Geschäftsführer: Mika Pälsi,
Juha Varelius, Mika Harjuaho
Sitz der Gesellschaft: Berlin, Registergericht: Amtsgericht Charlottenburg, HRB 144331 B