In a bid to boost its new Edge browser, Microsoft has announced that it is putting a key component of the said browser up for open source.
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Chakra out in the open will be known as ChakraCore. It’ll be landing on the company’s GitHub page next month and here’s what you need to know about it. The full Chakra includes the glue between the JavaScript engine and the browser’s HTML engine, and similarly, glue between the JavaScript engine and the Universal Windows Platform.
Microsoft says that they expect ChakraCore to be used for cloud-based services to IoT and beyond as it offers “best-in-class JavaScript execution” along with “dependable performance, reliability, and scalability”.
ChakraCore can stand on its own and is not dependent on components in the Edge browser in order to parse, interpret, compile or execute JavaScript.
ChakraCore isn’t exactly the same as Chakra for Microsoft Edge that ships with Windows 10. First, it does not expose Chakra’s private bindings to the browser or the Universal Windows Platform, both of which constrain it to a very specific use case. The company made the announcement today at the JSConf US Last Call in Amelia Island, Fla.
This is so, because Microsoft wants to keep ChakraCore and its open source development truly open and also keep Chakra (one that is tied down to Windows 10) away from the risks. The open source project will be released on GitHub in January. This is the complete JavaScript engine-the parser, the interpreter, the just-in-time compiler, and the garbage collector along with the API used to embed the engine into applications (as used in Edge). Microsoft is looking for contributors who will clone the repository, inspect the code and contribute new functionality for testing or fixing bugs.
Microsoft has also revealed that once the repository is made available in January 2016, the company will provide guidance on its initial priorities.
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Microsoft will also be taking suggestions on how to improve ChakraCore for “particular scenarios that are important to you or your business”. Community-driven development is the norm in the browser and JavaScript community, putting Microsoft at odds with Mozilla, Google, and Apple.
