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The complexity in modern browser engines has nothing to do with parsing invalid HTML and everything to do with the vast, absurd feature set of the modern web pl

by ripdog 7y ago

The complexity in modern browser engines has nothing to do with parsing invalid HTML and everything to do with the vast, absurd feature set of the modern web platform, and the complex interactions between the components.

bobthepanda 7y ago
Yeah, if you were to design HTML, CSS, and JS from the ground up today they'd likely look very different. The bigger issue is backwards compatibility; the web has bent over backwards to maintain it, which is a blessing and a curse. On the one hand it makes the feature set absurd, but on the other hand the web is (relatively) easy to archive since format interpreters for it are widespread, and pages can be built and then forgotten about because they still work.
- amelius 7y ago
  > Yeah, if you were to design HTML, CSS, and JS from the ground up today they'd likely look very different. I'd like to see that experiment done.
  - hencoappel 7y ago
    This is sort of what Flutter claims to be.
    - rubber_duck 7y ago
      Flutter is a GUI toolkit, it's a different use case entirely with some small overlap (flutter can run on the web or could be used to build the front-end for a new browser)
      - bobajeff 7y ago
        I think he's referring to the fact that Flutter was started as a project, by some of Google's browser and web standards people, to see what the could come up with if they designed a browser from scratch with the knowledge we have today. This is talked about in a few videos and articles by it's creators.
  - dodobirdlord 7y ago
    WASM does seem to be on the road to eventually being a better JS.
    - mycall 7y ago
      I wish WASM was AST based instead of stack based architecture.
      - wokkel 7y ago
        What does that statement mean? As far as i know stack VS AST is Apple VS. Oranges. If you meant a register based architecture that would make sense. I don't know is wasm code is verifiable, in which case it's trivial to rewrite it to a register like architecture (like dalvik does for jvm bytecode).
Aeolun 7y ago
I think we can drop all non-flexbox layout without any degradation in functionality.
- emn13 7y ago
  You mean grid? I'm suspect you can emulate most if not all of flexbox in grid, but definitely not vice-versa.

by ripdog 7y ago

bobthepanda 7y ago

Yeah, if you were to design HTML, CSS, and JS from the ground up today they'd likely look very different. The bigger issue is backwards compatibility; the web has bent over backwards to maintain it, which is a blessing and a curse. On the one hand it makes the feature set absurd, but on the other hand the web is (relatively) easy to archive since format interpreters for it are widespread, and pages can be built and then forgotten about because they still work.

amelius 7y ago
> Yeah, if you were to design HTML, CSS, and JS from the ground up today they'd likely look very different. I'd like to see that experiment done.
- hencoappel 7y ago
  This is sort of what Flutter claims to be.
  - rubber_duck 7y ago
    Flutter is a GUI toolkit, it's a different use case entirely with some small overlap (flutter can run on the web or could be used to build the front-end for a new browser)
    - bobajeff 7y ago
      I think he's referring to the fact that Flutter was started as a project, by some of Google's browser and web standards people, to see what the could come up with if they designed a browser from scratch with the knowledge we have today. This is talked about in a few videos and articles by it's creators.
- dodobirdlord 7y ago
  WASM does seem to be on the road to eventually being a better JS.
  - mycall 7y ago
    I wish WASM was AST based instead of stack based architecture.
    - wokkel 7y ago
      What does that statement mean? As far as i know stack VS AST is Apple VS. Oranges. If you meant a register based architecture that would make sense. I don't know is wasm code is verifiable, in which case it's trivial to rewrite it to a register like architecture (like dalvik does for jvm bytecode).

Aeolun 7y ago

I think we can drop all non-flexbox layout without any degradation in functionality.

emn13 7y ago
You mean grid? I'm suspect you can emulate most if not all of flexbox in grid, but definitely not vice-versa.