Next-Gen JavaScript Interpreter Speeds Up WebKit

JavaScript is everywhere these days. Now WebKit, the framework behind (among others) Safari and Safari Mobile, as well as the yet-unreleased Android, is getting a new JavaScript engine called Squirrelfish, which the developers claim provides massive speedups over the previous one. The current iteration of the engine is "just the beginning," they claim; in the near future, six planned optimizations should bring even greater speed. With JavaScript surviving as a Web-page mainstay despite many early gripes, and now integral to some low-powered mobile devices, this may mean many fewer wasted seconds in the world.

Comments

Re:The real question is....

[Ed Avis]

I downloaded Safari for Windows yesterday but it's just... urgh. The font rendering is all smudgy and changing the preferences doesn't seem to help. The window decorations and controls are weird and non-standard. Dialogue boxes do bizarre things like stretching themselves up and down without warning. There used to be a time when Apple was all in favour of user interface guidelines and making apps look and feel consistent, but they seem unable to even try to do this when developing for a platform they don't control.

The one bright spot is that the 'back' button is hella fast. Why can't Firefox cache the bitmap image of the previous page, or something, and snap to it instantly when you go back?