Internet Explorer Implements HTTP/2 Support

jones_supa writes: As part of the Windows 10 Technical Preview, Internet Explorer will introduce HTTP/2 support, along with performance improvements to the Chakra JavaScript engine, and a top-level domains parsing algorithm based on publicsuffix.org. HTTP/2 is a new standard by the Internet Engineering Task Force. Unlike HTTP/1.1, the new standard communicates metadata in binary format to significantly reduce parsing complexity. While binary is usually more efficient than text, the real performance gains are expected to come from multiplexing. This is where multiple requests can be share the same TCP connection. With this, one stalled request won't block other requests from being honored. Header compression is another important performance concern for HTTP.

Comments

Web services vs. CORBA

[GbrDead]

Slowly, web services are becoming a bad reimplementation* of CORBA. Once again, why did we jump on their band wagon?

* Hm, maybe the correct word is "restandardization"?

Re:Web services vs. CORBA

[CajunArson]

I've always been a fan of IIOP. You can use IIOP even if you don't want to re-introduce some of the more hangover inducing parts of the full CORBA stack (java's remote interfaces use IIOP IIRC).

Some people complain that a binary protocol is somehow not "open" but I've seen enough "open" XML uber-nested gibberish in my time to question that assertion...

Re:Web services vs. CORBA

[Warbothong]

Slowly, web services are becoming a bad reimplementation* of CORBA. Once again, why did we jump on their band wagon?

As far as I understand it, SOAP is reimplementation of CORBA, whereas HTTP is a REST protocol.

Specifically, HTTP doesn't try to keep disparate systems synchronised; it is stateless and has no notion of "distributed objects". Every request contains all of the information necessary to generate a response, for example in HTTP Auth the credentials are included in every request.

Of course, people keep trying to re-introduce state back into the protocol, eg. for performance ("modified since") or to support stateful programs (cookies). These aren't necessary though; for example, we can replace cookies (protocol-level state) with serialised delimited continuations (content-level state) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...

Re:Web services vs. CORBA

[Anonymous Coward]

nobody uses web services just as nobody uses CORBA

Are you daft? Wait, nevermind. You are daft.

We've all gone to love RESTful services over HTTP(s), and generally either JSON or some binary variant of it.

First of all, RESTful service structure is inadequate and inefficient. Most data isn't built to be dealt with at an entity level. That's the reason everyone got over ROR, and it's the reason RESTful services are useless. HTTP methods are to instruct the server how to handle the request, not the payload.

Second, a web service is a data service without presentation markup that is exposed via HTTP. That's literally what is required of a web (HTTP) service (data API). Aside from the lack of presentation markup, how the response is formatted is irrelevant. It could send back CSV for all anyone cares. JSON just so happens to be about eleventy-billion times more efficient than XML for most things. But for huge lists, CSV would be even more efficient than JSON. And for strictly-validated systems (read: interfaced with a fragile, ancient mainframe system that requires precise formatting of inputs because the CxO's want to keep COBOL around for cost reasons and "if-it-ain't-broke" doesn't equate to "if-it-ain't-shitty"), nothing beats the verifiability of XML and good old SOAP/WSDL-style web services.

If I were one to jump to conclusions (and, face it, I am, or I wouldn't be posting this), I'd say that you're one of those guys that works with Javascript all day and doesn't (yet) equate it to mental abuse.

I've been impressed with IE lately

[Isca]

Chrome has plenty of innovations but it easily becomes a resource hog and bogs down the system. IE 10 keeps chugging along. Microsoft isn't quite the microsoft of the past. These improvements should be felt the most in the mobile space where they clearly have the best browser. Their only problem? it might all be too late if they can never get out from under the shadow of their reputation.

Re:I've been impressed with IE lately

[zennling]

Re the resource usage issue - isnt IE's low(ish) resource usage only due to the fact that alot of what it needs to render a page is actually in the OS and thus loaded already before it needs it?

Re:I've been impressed with IE lately

[Cenan]

What the mobile (or smartphone) boom should have shown every nerd on the face of the planet: nobody outside of /. gives a shit about "reputation" when picking up a new phone or tablet. If Microsoft manages to launch a smartphone that is affordable (i.e not priced above an iPhone) and manages to make Windows-not-metro-for-fucks-sake-please-dear-god-please-stop-reminding-us usable on a touch device and the desktop at the same time, all that bad nerd press from the last 15-20 years will mean diddly squat for their sales figures.

The non nerdy friends and colleagues I have all pretty much agree on what is important in a new phone: camera (especially camera vs. dim light conditions), app store inventory (games mostly), fb app, twitter app, instagram app. Who made the device is of very little concern.

Now, with a one OS to rule all platforms approach, they might even be able to add some of that Apple just-works magic to their portfolio, which is not to be scuffed at.

And I agree, MS is not old MS anymore. They've been forced to try and keep up rather than the old buy-and-extinguish strategy, at least in the mobile and touch device market, and I think it's been good for them.

Re:I've been impressed with IE lately

[jzilla]

If you have not worked with web front end and not had to deal with the torture that is ie 6, 7, 8 and to a lesser extent 9. Then it might be easy to forget and forgive.
But even if ie 10 is an acceptable browser, it just proves that microsoft will produce a decent product only a last resort. When all the chips are down and they are loosing market share in a steady flow, then and only then does the prospect of not making a steaming pile of dogshit become feasible. I'm not impressed.

Re:I've been impressed with IE lately

[Bengie]

Chrome can be a resources hog, but it's the only browser that doesn't periodically freeze up when attempting to load web pages. And "resources hog" is a relative term when desktops tend to now have 16GB+ memory and quad core 3ghz CPUs that are idle 24/7. I would rather have a browser that is wasteful with my over-abundance of resources and runs smoothly, than a browser that is fickle about using resources, but has jarring interruptions.

Re:I've been impressed with IE lately

[neoritter]

Chrome freezes up for me all the time. More so than FF and IE.

Re: I've been impressed with IE lately

[pooh666]

I like that IE will actually ACCEPT my self signed CA cert(when I install it) without throwing crazed monkeys at it :)

Re:Slash 2?

[mwvdlee]

Atleast since HTTP/1.0

http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc...

Re:Control

[CajunArson]

Spoken like somebody who really doesn't understand TCP/IP but likes to say NSA for cheap mod points.

Re:Slash 2?

[Carewolf]

Atleast since HTTP/1.0

http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc...

Ah, so it is a regression ;)

Re:Header Compression + Binary Headers

[BaronAaron]

This won't effect AJAX. HTTP is abstracted away from the javascript engine by the browser. I imagine there might be some additional HTTP header parameters to play with while making AJAX calls, but that's about it. All the benefits from HTTP/2 will happen behind scene as far as AJAX is concerned.

Embrace first, then extend and extinguish

[raymorris]

You forgot the first word of "embrace, extend, extinguish".
Take html for example:

1) We now have browser that renders html, just like Netscape.
2) "Best viewed in Internet Explorer"
3) Requires IE 4 ... years later ...

Of fuck, Firefox is kicking our ass. Time to return to step 1.

Re:Slash 2?

[PolygamousRanchKid]

HTTP/2 runs best on a PS/2 running OS/2.

Because then the Microkernel can take full advantage of the Microchannel.