The in-browser edition of BBCSDL performs a unique rôle: it acts as the 'run-time engine' for anybody wanting to deploy web apps written in BBC BASIC (unless they host their own copy). As a result the consequences of a bug of some sort creeping in could be much more serious than would normally be the case, because it could break web apps for everybody.
It's partly for this reason that the version of SDL used by the in-browser edition is still at 2.24.2, whereas all the other editions are at 2.32.8 (except the Linux editions of course, which use whatever version of SDL2 is available from the relevant repository). But this can't go on for ever, I am going to have to 'bite the bullet' and update the version of SDL2 in the in-browser edition at some point.
Before doing so I will of course check as far as I can that nothing has broken, but I can't possibly test every BASIC program on every browser on every platform, so there will remain a risk of something nasty happening. Before I take the plunge, I would appreciate any suggestions that anybody might have for how exactly I should approach this to minimise the risk.
I know for sure that the change will have a 'cosmetic' effect on rendered fonts, because the current SDL 2.24.2 doesn't use the Harfbuzz text shaping engine, whereas SDL 2.32.8 does. The main effect is that fonts seem to get 'lighter' (i.e. thinner strokes); if anybody has particular concerns about this let me know, not that there is anything I can do about it!