Mozilla Quantum: New Browser Engine Based On Servo/Rust For Firefox

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Mozilla Quantum: New Browser Engine Based On Servo/Rust For Firefox

Mozilla's latest secret project to go public is Quantum, a new browser engine for Firefox. But before wondering what happened to Servo, don't worry, Quantum makes use of Servo and Rust...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Mozilla-Quantum-Servo

[danieru]

I'm disapointed, just one more layer of abstraction? why not 5 or 8 layers of abstraction just for the engine?
Why not write it in a moder and fast language like JavaScript or python? That way we can add another 2-3 layers of abstraction.

Because everyone knows layer of abstraction == modern

[Kemosabe]

I'm disapointed, just one more layer of abstraction? why not 5 or 8 layers of abstraction just for the engine?
Why not write it in a moder and fast language like JavaScript or python? That way we can add another 2-3 layers of abstraction.

Because everyone knows layer of abstraction == modern

Could you add some content to you rage so other people do know what you are referring to?

[smitty3268]

I'm disapointed, just one more layer of abstraction? why not 5 or 8 layers of abstraction just for the engine?
Why not write it in a moder and fast language like JavaScript or python? That way we can add another 2-3 layers of abstraction.

Because everyone knows layer of abstraction == modern

I hate to break it to you, but web browser code bases already have abstraction layers in them. It's not clear to me that this will add any (or remove any), and ultimately when the performance is going up 500% I really don't care.

[schmidtbag]

Could you add some content to you rage so other people do know what you are referring to?

I actually get what he means. Though it's a lot more blunt than I'd have put it, I don't necessarily disagree.

Abstraction basically means writing something on top of something else in order to accomplish the tasks of lower layers in a more simple or organized manner, usually at the cost of system resources. So in the case of Firefox, we now have Quantum, which is build upon Servo and Rust, which is probably built with C++, and so on. And that's just for the browser itself. I didn't even get into the layers above or below Quantum, Servo, Rust, and Firefox itself.
I'll admit this is a very crude definition so I'm sure someone is bound to come up and disagree with me.

[Tomin]

Quantum CSS, Quantum Render, Quantum Compositor, Quantum DOM, and Quantum Flow

I guess I need to get a Quantum Computer to run this future Firefox...

[oooverclocker]

I'm disapointed, just one more layer of abstraction? why not 5 or 8 layers of abstraction just for the engine?
Why not write it in a moder and fast language like JavaScript or python? That way we can add another 2-3 layers of abstraction.

Because everyone knows layer of abstraction == modern

What do you mean? Rust is by far the most competitive object oriented language compared to C if you exclude C++ regarding the performance. Thus you have about the same ease of use like using Java. You can also embed assembly code if you like or even C++.

[shmerl]

Why not simply build a UI on top of Servo? Or it's not ready yet to be a full featured engine?

[yzsolt]

I don't really understand it either... When they introduced the first Rust component in Firefox (which was a tag parser for MP3/4 maybe? - very basic stuff), it used the standard C interface, thus missing the whole point of writing something in Rust in my opinion - not to mention, the code was ugly because of the noise of FFI an unsafe blocks. And now, using bigger pieces of Servo through C FFI from C++? I don't really see the point... They could put more effort into Servo instead.

[TheCycoONE]

My understanding was that servo is becoming a sort of gecko sandbox. As pieces of it are ready for prime time, they will through this Quantum project replace that piece in Gecko. This way we can be transitioned to servo without painful regressions.