How Does Your Web Browser Handle JavaScript?
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Google Chrome has been officially in beta for about a month now. Many of you are using it for your default browser already at this point. I wrote about Google Chrome this month for my CPU Magazine article. I want to discuss one of those points with all of you now.
As you visit websites, you may seem to be slowed down due to the amount of script that is running on the page. It’s all potentially tied into JavaScript performance. This is going to get interesting in a couple of months. Google has said they will be using the V8 JavaScript engine. This, of course, is now a part of WebKit. Just last week, WebKit came out and said they have SquirrelFish Extreme, which is a register-based, direct-threaded, high-level bytecode engine, with a sliding register window calling convention. It lazily generates bytecodes from a syntax tree, using a simple one-pass compiler with built-in copy propagation. This increases JavaScript performance even more, even compared to V8.
We’re about to enter a browser war, specifically in the area of JavaScript performance. Google releases a beta browser, with a good JavaScript engine. Let’s face it, a lot of your favorite sites are probably running JavaScript right now. And, Chrome is handling it much more efficiently. Here we have a Beta browser who is running a better JavaScript engine than what any of the current leading browsers have. This is raising the bar in a very big way for everyone else.
I went searching the web to help me find something that can help me download the nightly build of the WebKit. I found NightShift for use on Mac OS X. NightShift automatically downloads and updates WebKit, the Safari HTML rendering engine, to the latest nightly version for Safari. No user intervention is required, everything is fully automated. The developer has a few other cool tools, as well.
For Windows users, check out Chrome Plugins. This site is full of Plugins, Themes, Add-ons and information for the Google Chrome Web Browser! This isn’t an “official” Chrome blog, but the people who are working officially on Chrome are a part of this community, as well. You can learn pretty much everything you need to know about Chrome, and then some!
What are your thoughts? Where do you think browsers are heading?
- Jason Profit Moffatts Niche Browser.
- Buddy Browser - Safe, Educational And Fun Browser For Children.
- Stiqmo Mobile Desktop.
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4 Comments
About Halloween - Geeks!
October 16th, 2008
at 2:58am
[...] How Does Your Web Browser Handle JavaScript? [...]
Barrington
October 16th, 2008
at 3:47am
Strangely, for me Chrome is slower than Firefox with Google Analytics! Surprised to hear its JavaScript performance is meant to be that much faster.
Jeff
October 16th, 2008
at 6:52am
If this is the future of the Web, it’ll be a bleak future for many of us. Although javascript is an indispensable tool for enhancing user experience, it is not a suitable development platform. Google is among those pushing for this AJAX-driven world, and I think it’s a mistake.
Progressive enhancement is the only sensible future for Web development. Look to “A List Apart” and “SitePoint” for a full description of what that means, if you’re uncertain. The bottom line is that lower-level functionality must be preserved when enhancements are added.
One problem with javascript is that it requires local processing. It’s fine to put heavy demands on the end user who is running a high-end machine, but what about others? Server-side solutions like ColdFusion and PHP make much more sense in almost any context. Inevitably, developers promote complexity rather than simplicity; and inevitably, the end user wants content to be delivered NOW. The dynamic tension between these two must be acknowledged and respected in the design process.
And what about those who code javascript maliciously to open unwanted windows, etc.? Ultimately, end users can only control this by denying scripts, selectively or altogether. When the provocations are persistent enough, they will.
Trust me. Heavy reliance on javascript does not bode well for anyone. It is a great tool, but not a good foundation for development.
Barbara
October 17th, 2008
at 2:27pm
Having had lots of trouble running IE brouser with microsoft Java i loaded Sun Microsystems Java and had no more problems with IE , at least no Java problems.