New Javascript Engine For Firefox Tracemonkey

[xenador 0]

So I was doing a little research because a lot of the sites that I vist are starting to use AJAX in there sites to speed up the whole process and overall make the sites a lot better, only problem mozilla hangs a lot now, I am using the FF beta version granted, but I never realized that the JS engine sucked so much until I encountered this. Luckily I wasnt the only one to have noticed this, as FF has a new JS engine in the betas already, its called tracemonkey and supposidly it beats out any other JS engine on the market. Hopefully they get it out of the nightly builds and into a final realease state so I can start using it.

[risvile 0]

So I was doing a little research because a lot of the sites that I vist are starting to use AJAX in there sites to speed up the whole process and overall make the sites a lot better, only problem mozilla hangs a lot now, I am using the FF beta version granted, but I never realized that the JS engine sucked so much until I encountered this. Luckily I wasnt the only one to have noticed this, as FF has a new JS engine in the betas already, its called tracemonkey and supposidly it beats out any other JS engine on the market. Hopefully they get it out of the nightly builds and into a final realease state so I can start using it.

How is the V8 engine of Google Chrome different from the new JS engine of firefox?
I've heard that ff js engine is much faster at executing js than that of V8? is that true?

[xenador 0]

Well it is all theory for me because I am having a ton of problems due to the jump to vista...so until I resolve those issues I am not trying to create any new problem due to beta versions and unknown bugs. Having said that I can elaborate on how the engine is "supposed to operate". The new tech in Tracemonkey is a technique called "trace trees" which is a tech developed at UC Irvine by Andreas Gal. Reviews of the software claim that image processing done via JS is improved up to 6x or 7x, they said most other operations see a boost of up to 40x's...most of those being simple loops etc...it is supposed to compete with other native languages...but I see problems for it, javascript has no cross browser compatability...its nowhere near portable enough to be used alone, and granted I might use it I do realize that a ton of visitors to site still prefer using Internet Exploder (IE) to the better browsers, so this limits how much I can code in AJAX etc...I am hopeful that the updates might make JS something that is standard cross browsers, but it looks like I may be waiting, some say that it will come out in one of the next patches in a released form, but techspot is reporting it will probably be more around the 4.0 release, regardless I will give chrome a try but still use mozilla as my standard.

 

I forget where I saw the chrome vs. tracemonkey one but here is the current FF3(spidermonkey) vs. new tracemonkey

Edited October 25, 2008 by xenador (see edit history)

[risvile 0]

I've used Chrome on windows and it seems to be working quite efficiently with its unique "Sand boxing" technique.Up until now, I've used IE, firefox, opera (also opera mini on nokia cell phones) and chrome..,I've gotta say every updates, bug fixes etc.., changes how they work numerous times creating more bugs slowing and affecting the performance of browser experiences.Also on viewing one of the videos on Chrome features from google, they said that JS is platform independent/supports cross browsers at present.I used to like Firefox a lot (1.x and 2.0.0.0) as it was light (optimum caching), quick etc.. but now it (3.x) is so bulky, my gosh, i wonder with next update it might lose its fan following. Chrome had crashed once on my windows while working on it. (I like the alert box that it shows when it crashes "WOW, Chrome has crashed" thing, pretty neat for google's chrome huh?)

Edited October 25, 2008 by risvile (see edit history)

[shadowx 0]

Interesting... the graph seems to promise good things but can we really expect these results in real life?

I mean sure nice neat, light effective JS code might be very easy to parse on the new engine and hence increase speeds but not much JS code is that clean and nice so there could be some bugs there...

they said that JS is platform independent/supports cross browsers at present.

Js as a language is platform independent as its run by the browser methinks...however virtually every browser uses a different JS engine and so you never quite know the outcome exactly as even a tiny difference can stop an effect working or something.

And i also agree that FF3 is heavy, not as heavy as IE but damn mozilla is putting on a few pounds! Hopefully their next release is lighter and faster still.

[Sandeep Singh 0]

Well it is all theory for me because I am having a ton of problems due to the jump to vista...so until I resolve those issues I am not trying to create any new problem due to beta versions and unknown bugs. Having said that I can elaborate on how the engine is "supposed to operate". The new tech in Tracemonkey is a technique called "trace trees" which is a tech developed at UC Irvine by Andreas Gal. Reviews of the software claim that image processing done via JS is improved up to 6x or 7x, they said most other operations see a boost of up to 40x's...most of those being simple loops etc...it is supposed to compete with other native languages...but I see problems for it, javascript has no cross browser compatability...its nowhere near portable enough to be used alone, and granted I might use it I do realize that a ton of visitors to site still prefer using Internet Exploder (IE) to the better browsers, so this limits how much I can code in AJAX etc...I am hopeful that the updates might make JS something that is standard cross browsers, but it looks like I may be waiting, some say that it will come out in one of the next patches in a released form, but techspot is reporting it will probably be more around the 4.0 release, regardless I will give chrome a try but still use mozilla as my standard.
I forget where I saw the chrome vs. tracemonkey one but here is the current FF3(spidermonkey) vs. new tracemonkey

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