14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft Edge, the browser that comes packed with all Windows 10 versions, will have its JavaScript core engine open-sourced in a surprising announcement that comes from the Redmond company.
Chakra is Microsoft Edge's JavaScript engine, a core component of its browser that's responsible for reading JavaScript code and then translating that code into animations, interactions, or operations performed inside each page.
Every browser has its own JavaScript engine, and it's different for each manufacturer. The most famous of them all is V8, used for the Chromium project (Google Chrome, Vivaldi, Opera) and as the main component inside Node.js, a server-side JavaScript platform.
Microsoft will open source ChakraCore, a stripped-down version of Chakra
According to Microsoft, not all of Edge's JavaScript engine will be open-sourced, but only a set of core features, that Microsoft devs call ChakraCore.
"ChakraCore is a fully fledged, self-contained JavaScript virtual machine that can be embedded in derivative products and power applications that need scriptability such as NoSQL databases, productivity software, and game engines," Microsoft explains.
"It includes everything that is needed to parse, interpret, compile and execute JavaScript code without any dependencies on Microsoft Edge internals," the team also noted.
This announcement explains why, earlier this year, we saw a proof-of-concept project where Microsoft devs tested a Node.js version where they replaced V8 with Chakra.
ChakraCore is a universal, platform-agnostic JavaScript engine
But how is ChakraCore different from Chakra? First of all, it does away with any Edge or UWP-specific code, which won't be useful if developers decide to use ChakraCore for non-Windows applications.
Secondly, it also removes some of the internal diagnostics API, also specific to Windows-only applications, and replaces them with generic APIs that are fully-platform-agnostic.
This will enable developers to integrate ChakraCore with non-Windows architectures, like IoT devices, *NIX platforms, and other embedded systems, entering a direct competition with Samsung's IoT.js and JerryScript projects.
As for the project's performance, Edge has gained a reputation for being faster than both Chrome and Firefox on Windows 10. With the removal of the Edge and UWP features, the engine is bound to become faster, and with 90% coverage of the JavaScript 2015 standard, Chakra is currently to most ES6-friendly JavaScript engine around, recently beating out even the infamous and prodigious Babel project.
ChakraCore will be made available starting with January on GitHub. If you want to keep an eye out for new releases, this is the company's official GitHub account.
