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0 pointssimion3146y ago0 comments

We don't need JS to get 2% more faster, the limits of those speed improvements were reached, web assembly combined with a compiled language could offer more speed.

I would like to see Firefox move faster in implementing good web APIs, like the lazy loading of images, push for HTML and CSS improvements(like let me customize the numeric text input arrows with css instead of forcing me to use a JS library) .

Maybe the Rust rewrite will make Firefox better achitected so you could have a node version based on Mozilla technologies or you could easily use the web assembly VM in your application without having to load the full Chrome code.

0 comments

scarface746y ago

Wasn’t Netscape the case study of why you shouldn’t do a full rewrite?

simion314OP6y ago

AFAIK Firefox is not doing a full rewrite but incremental refactoring then attempting to swap components.

The unfortunate truth is that writing a browser is almost impossible because of the complexity, IMO we need a new version of the web that breaks compatibility, make everything strict(no longer ignore errors and guess a fix for them) no more 12 ways to center an element , for the legacy web we can use the existing engines

vbezhenar6y ago

Write websites with Wasm, render UI with WebGL or something similar. Implement JavaScript as a compiler to Wasm (which runs on Wasmitself), implement HTML+CSS renderer as a library which runs on Wasm as well. So basically your browser need to implement Wasm and WebGL which sounds reasonable task. Well, that's simplification, of course, it need to implement some HTTP API like XMLHttpRequest, local storage API and so on, but it's manageable.

Here's an example of website written with Rust and rendering all UI to canvas: https://makepad.github.io/makepad/ it works right now and it's very fast and smooth.

IMO tech for next generation web apps is already here and it's great.

simion314OP6y ago

Implementing an html rendered that is compatible with all the css rules and it also implements all the extra workarounds that the current browser implement ( like handling illegal markup is not trivial) markup . I mean think about it, you hit invalid html markup and what do you do? You need to continue but now you need to check what Firefox or Chrome do for each case (missing end tags , P inside span, weird nesting of elements ) I would not want to implement a browser that is compatible with the current garbage.

There was also an article earlier this month or previous month from a Firefox developer about font/text rendering, in case you missed it rendering text in a way that works with all writing system is super hard.

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pdpi6y ago

Which is a lesson they learnt well. So they’re treating Servo as a research project, chunking it into libraries, and retrofitting those libraries into the Firefox mainline.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

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scarface746y ago

Wasn’t Netscape the case study of why you shouldn’t do a full rewrite?

simion314OP6y ago

AFAIK Firefox is not doing a full rewrite but incremental refactoring then attempting to swap components.

vbezhenar6y ago

Here's an example of website written with Rust and rendering all UI to canvas: https://makepad.github.io/makepad/ it works right now and it's very fast and smooth.

IMO tech for next generation web apps is already here and it's great.

simion314OP6y ago

1 more reply

pdpi6y ago

Which is a lesson they learnt well. So they’re treating Servo as a research project, chunking it into libraries, and retrofitting those libraries into the Firefox mainline.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse