Completely agree. First it is bad for the field in general to have only one approach. Currently rendering HTML5 and its transformations is a complex subject, without competition we don't know if there are better ways to accomplish this task.
>urrently rendering HTML5 and its transformations is a complex subject, without competition we don't know if there are better ways to accomplish this task.
Why, did anyone told you that the various engines differ in how the go about those in any real way that matters?
It's mostly duplicated code and similar approaches.
And even if it wasn't you can have different approaches in the ONE AND SAME codebase easily. Test alternatives out and see what works better. It's even easier when everybody is using the same engine, because you don't have to also implement EVERYTHING else yourself in order to implement one thing differently.
I think completely different. I want more approaches on web rendering like I want more operating systems, even if they are attacking niche applications or playing "fantasy" games. I don't care.
You are talking about how currently HTML5 is implemented, but there is a long road of optimizations, HTML is a new technology and HTML5 is not yet here (try it on your mobile phone).
Do you remember anyone talking about hard javascript engine optimization until Google Chrome "attacked" with their implementation and anybody tried to catch up.
>You are talking about how currently HTML5 is implemented, but there is a long road of optimizations, HTML is a new technology and HTML5 is not yet here
What exactly makes a "long road of optimizations" incompatible with having one engine? As a matter of fact I don't expect any competing engine to disrupt of surpass Webkit in overall speed for the next 10 years (except maybe by some inconsequential amount in some neglected area).
>Do you remember anyone talking about hard javascript engine optimization until Google Chrome "attacked" with their implementation and anybody tried to catch up.
Yes. In fact SquirrelFish was the first new gen Javascript engine, started long before Google Chrome came out. Plus "two weeks after Chrome's launch, the WebKit team announced a new JavaScript engine, SquirrelFish Extreme, citing a 36% speed improvement over Chrome's V8 engine."
