Mozilla and Samsung Collaborating to Bring New Browser Engine to Android 111
An anonymous reader writes with this bit from The Next Web: "Mozilla and Samsung on Wednesday announced a new partnership to build a 'next generation' web browser engine called Servo. The ultimate goal is to bring the technology to Android and ARM, though the two companies have not shared a timeframe for a possible launch. With the help of Samsung, Mozilla is bringing both the Rust programming language as well as Servo to Android and ARM. Samsung's contribution so far has been an ARM backend to Rust as well as the build infrastructure necessary to cross-compile to Android. In fact, the code is available now on GitHub, as is the source for Rust and Servo."
For those unfamiliar, Rust is Mozilla's new safe systems programming language (kind of like BitC), and Servo is their general project to write a brand new engine using Rust. Rust has an interesting memory model that eliminates much difficulty in reasoning about threaded programs. If you know what you're doing, they claim you can cross compile the code for Android, but no functionality guarantees have been made.
Re:Stop it, stop it, stop it! (Score:1, Insightful)
What concepts does Rust introduce that aren't already present in the latest C++ standard? Which aren't already present in Scala? Which aren't already present in Go? Do you really want me to believe that memory safety, concurrency, generics, and exception handling present in half-a-dozen off-the-shelf (and mature) languages weren't sufficient? (And let's not forget that every new language departs from existing tool chains that service to multiply development efforts.)
I'll say it for the umpteenth time on Slashdot: why do we need dozens of half-baked projects instead of a few that are exceptionally solid? And I'll, again, give my own answer: because every one of these geeks who designs to start his own little, duplicative project thinks he's smarter than everyone else. You know, because those guys are idiots, and we couldn't possibly build upon their work. Greenfield development is always fun! (Am I right?)
But let's forget all that for the moment, and concentrate on our shiny new browser engine. If and only if this project is successful when all is said and done, it will produce exactly the same output as its siblings and predecessors--output that's dictated by standards. Indeed, after devoting person-years worth of hard labor, we will end up with something with exactly the same functionality as what we had before.
Sigh. Obligatory XKCD.
http://xkcd.com/927/ [xkcd.com]
Re:Servo Yes, Rust No. (Score:0, Insightful)
Yep. Meanwhile, Samsung should be focusing on getting android updates out to their damn devices. When your customers are having to wait YEARS for you to ship, you're obviously doing it wrong. Don't jump in on a new project until you can get you shit together on the stuff you're already committed to.
Re:Stop it, stop it, stop it! (Score:5, Insightful)
What concepts does Rust introduce that aren't already present in the latest C++ standard?
Too many to enumerate, but the main one is: not being a crazy impractical language which so many programmers were ill-taught to use.
Which aren't already present in Scala?
Not using a Java VM.
Doing actual Unicode natively, not the UTF-16 bastardization of it.
Which aren't already present in Go?
I'll let the FAQ [github.com] take this one...
Re:Time for Google to act.. (Score:5, Insightful)
I love Android and Chrome and most Google products, but the last thing I want is Google throwing their weight around with the OS. The whole point of Android is that it is open. If somebody thinks they can make a better browser more power to them - these aren't the days of IE6 - I don't want an "Optimized for Chrome" experience.
If they come up with some good ideas then everybody wins. Competition is good for the consumer. I like Chrome for all the automatic syncing across all my platforms, but the last thing I want is for them to stagnate due to lack of competition.