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The showcase project for Rust is a web browser (after all, Rust started out at Mozilla), which is certainly one of the larger undertakings one can start nowaday

by cwyers 7y ago

The showcase project for Rust is a web browser (after all, Rust started out at Mozilla), which is certainly one of the larger undertakings one can start nowadays.

la_barba 7y ago
Well, I personally wouldn't put any web-browser in the performance applications category. They are important applications, no doubt, and increasing their memory safety is always a plus. But there is something "soft realtime"/definitive about fitting the rendering of millions of textured-polygons, and running AI, Physics, data streaming, audio, gameplay code in a total budget of 16ms per-frame for hours and hours.
hu3 7y ago
How is Firefox a showcase of Rusts performance when Chrome beats it in benchmarks? https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Firefox-66-Chrome-73-Benchmarks https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Firefox-... Not to mention Firefox's poor state in macOS.
- wtetzner 7y ago
  What do you mean by it’s poor state in macOs? I use it as my main browser on macOs both at work and at home, and much prefer it over Chrome.
  - hu3 7y ago
    I envy you. There are complains of Firefox on macs on most Firefox-related threads. Ignore the titles and search comments in recent threads with significant number of comments: https://www.google.com/search?q=site:news.ycombinator.com+firefox+macbook+crash+slow+fan+heat https://www.google.com/search?q=site:news.ycombinator.com+fi... On my machine at current gig it crashes every other day making me lose my containers. It doesn't overheat the machine like some others reported though.
- wolfspider 7y ago
  According to the same benchmarks that test is a few versions older. Compare it to these and they are neck and neck (in theory). Consider that most benchmarking is subjective...depends on so many factors like is this Clear or Ubuntu Linux? Are the chipsets the same? The numbers are different here for "Speedometer" but between both tests there isn't enough information here even to say the tests are comparable just different. https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=firefox-69-beta&num=3 https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=firefox-...
- Scuds 7y ago
  It's not. You may as well be comparing C++ to Swift. Chrome has had a lot more time and resources put into it anyway while Quantum has only seen release for two years. That said, you're better off comparing CVE counts for Firefox vs Chrome. That said someone could craft a malformed legacy font file that has to be parsed by some dusty win32 code and BOOM!
- cwyers 7y ago
  Rust is 6.5% of Firefox's code: https://4e6.github.io/firefox-lang-stats/ https://4e6.github.io/firefox-lang-stats/ They are working on a new Rust-based rendering engine, Servo, but it hasn't received nearly the level of work that a browser like Chrome has yet.

by cwyers 7y ago

The showcase project for Rust is a web browser (after all, Rust started out at Mozilla), which is certainly one of the larger undertakings one can start nowadays.

la_barba 7y ago

Well, I personally wouldn't put any web-browser in the performance applications category. They are important applications, no doubt, and increasing their memory safety is always a plus. But there is something "soft realtime"/definitive about fitting the rendering of millions of textured-polygons, and running AI, Physics, data streaming, audio, gameplay code in a total budget of 16ms per-frame for hours and hours.

hu3 7y ago

How is Firefox a showcase of Rusts performance when Chrome beats it in benchmarks? https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Firefox-66-Chrome-73-Benchmarks https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Firefox-... Not to mention Firefox's poor state in macOS.

wtetzner 7y ago
What do you mean by it’s poor state in macOs? I use it as my main browser on macOs both at work and at home, and much prefer it over Chrome.
- hu3 7y ago
  I envy you. There are complains of Firefox on macs on most Firefox-related threads. Ignore the titles and search comments in recent threads with significant number of comments: https://www.google.com/search?q=site:news.ycombinator.com+firefox+macbook+crash+slow+fan+heat https://www.google.com/search?q=site:news.ycombinator.com+fi... On my machine at current gig it crashes every other day making me lose my containers. It doesn't overheat the machine like some others reported though.
wolfspider 7y ago
According to the same benchmarks that test is a few versions older. Compare it to these and they are neck and neck (in theory). Consider that most benchmarking is subjective...depends on so many factors like is this Clear or Ubuntu Linux? Are the chipsets the same? The numbers are different here for "Speedometer" but between both tests there isn't enough information here even to say the tests are comparable just different. https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=firefox-69-beta&num=3 https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=firefox-...
Scuds 7y ago
It's not. You may as well be comparing C++ to Swift. Chrome has had a lot more time and resources put into it anyway while Quantum has only seen release for two years. That said, you're better off comparing CVE counts for Firefox vs Chrome. That said someone could craft a malformed legacy font file that has to be parsed by some dusty win32 code and BOOM!
cwyers 7y ago
Rust is 6.5% of Firefox's code: https://4e6.github.io/firefox-lang-stats/ https://4e6.github.io/firefox-lang-stats/ They are working on a new Rust-based rendering engine, Servo, but it hasn't received nearly the level of work that a browser like Chrome has yet.