[webkit-dev] WebKit branch to support multiple VMs (e.g., Dart)

[Vijay Menon]

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies.  Based on the feedback here, we've decided to host
our branch of WebKit at: http://src.chromium.org/multivm/trunk/webkit.

We'll use this branch to try to address the technical
and maintenance issues you've brought up.

Cheers,

Anton, Pavel, and Vijay

On Mon, Dec 5, 2011 at 9:26 AM, Vijay Menon <vsm at google.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Many languages compile to JavaScript today to run on the web.  As
> alternative, we’ve been experimenting with enabling different language
> runtimes in WebKit to run in web pages alongside JavaScript.
>
> This could be used to support languages like Python, Java, Ruby, Lua, or -
> what inspired us - Dart (www.dartlang.org).
>
> Some reasons to consider additional runtimes include:
>
> - Speed.  Many languages are faster than JavaScript when run natively
> and/or do not compile to JavaScript efficiently.
> - Developer choice.  Another runtime provides developers with more choice
> without requiring them to use a toolchain.
> - Development experience.  Languages supported directly in the browser can
> have a significantly better debugging and profiling experience than they
> can with compiled code.
>
> We have a quite early patch of this work available here:
>
> - multi-vm changes: http://codereview.chromium.org/8806015/
> - dart bindings: http://codereview.chromium.org/8802010/
>
> We’re planning to create a multi-vm branch on webkit.org to experiment
> with this idea.  Our goal with this branch is to (a) demonstrate the above
> points and (b) show that we can do this without degrading JavaScript
> performance or the WebKit development experience.  If successful, we’d like
> to submit these changes to WebKit trunk.  We welcome your feedback.
>
> Regards,
>
> Anton Muhin
> Pavel Podivilov
> Vijay Menon
>
>
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