Microsoft enlists Mozilla to speed up JavaScript in Windows 10

19.02.2015
Microsoft is looking to improve Web performance in Windows 10 by bringing in Mozilla's asm.js JavaScript subset, for inclusion in Microsoft's Chakra JavaScript engine.

A post in the IEBlog Wednesday says asm.js has been moved to the "In Development" stage at status.modern.ie, noting that support for the technology has been a most-requested item in the Internet Explorer Platform Suggestion box. The team has looked at asm.js in the past few months and found it boosts JavaScript execution speed and guarantees interoperability across platforms and browsers.

"Asm.js is a clear step towards enabling near-native performance for the Web platform, which is why we're excited to bring it to Chakra in an upcoming release," said Guareth Seth and Ed Maurer, of the Chakra team, in the blog post. The headline of the post mentions inclusion of asm.js in Chakra in Windows 10, which is due some time this year.

Delivering an interoperable and specification-compliant JavaScript engine with the performance for modern experiences has been a key goal for since the inception of Chakra, Maurer and Seth said. "Bringing near-native performance for JavaScript code execution is a part of the same."

Asm.js can be used as a target language for compilers and has been positioned to improve Web application performance and extend C and C++ applications to the Web. Microsoft has been working with the Firefox team handling asm.js. to help bring the technology to Chakra. Asm.js, the bloggers said, is leveraged principally by transpiling C/C++ code to run on the Web platform, utilizing technologies like WebGL.

(www.infoworld.com)

Paul Krill