A few clarifications for the API owners process

[Chris Harrelson]

Hi, I added a brief FAQ section to the launching-features page, in response to some feedback about the scope of the API owners.

https://sites.google.com/a/chromium.org/dev/blink/launching-features?pli=1

Q: Do I need any of this if my project is just refactoring or re-architecting the code? Do the API owners need to be involved?

A: No. The API owners oversee the process of shipping web-exposed API changes. They are not necessarily leads or overseers of any of the code. Instead, you should get the buy-in of the leads of the code areas touched by your project. In addition, such large projects should have public design docs that are also shared on blink-dev@chromium.org (or chromi...@chromium.org, for projects that have significant parts outside of third_party/blink) for feedback (this is also a good way to get the attention of relevant leads you might not have thought of).

For code-related questions, you can email platform-arc...@chromium.org in addition to blink-dev@ as a catch-all option when the code ownership is not clear or the feature needs large-scale refactoring changes.

Q: What if I want to add some code to third_party/blink that is for a non-web-exposed feature? Is that allowed?

A: In general, no. On a case-by-case basis an exception could be given if there is no other reasonable way to implement the feature. Ask for permission from leads of the code area as well as the API owners. (The API owners need to be involved only to help understand if the feature really is not web-exposed; this can be a very subtle question.)

Q: I am not sure of the right approach for my feature. What should I do?

A: Please reach out to the API owners for help! While they are not gatekeepers for everything, they are very happy to give advice and unblock your feature. An email to blink-api-ow...@chromium.org is the best way; if a public-facing email is not possible, please email the API owners directly.