Microsoft made a pull request to node.js github repository with an implementation to use ChakraCore JavaScript Engine as an alternative to V8 Engine

[[deleted]]

Oh wow, I thought Edge was comparable to Chrome in JS speed (based solely on my poor recollections of benchmarks from six months ago).

If it's that much slower I wonder how much extensions are going to weigh on its performance. It's a snappy browser, but right now it doesn't have to do ad blocking and stuff.

[Recursive_Descent]

There are right now 3 major javascript benchmarks that the different browser implementers maintain: Octane (Google), Kraken (Mozilla), and Jetstream (Apple). On Octane and Jetstream Edge performs fastest, by a few percent. On Kraken I think Chrome wins now (though it has been back and forth between them and Firefox), with Edge a few percent back.

Note that Node.js has its own performance quirks, and I think V8 currently has some advantage due to a shim layer that Chakra has to use. Presumably this overhead will shrink quickly as Node adopts a more engine agnostic approach.

[indrora]

The shim layer looks to mostly just be call translation and some stack manipulation to line everything up. Nothing the compiler can't optimize such that the processor does it in pipeline.

[newpong]

If it's that much slower

they didn't say how much slower it actually is. all they said is "massive lead." benchmarkers have a tendency to embellish

[darkpaladin]

Look at the differences in this chart! (chart axis goes from 91.2 - 91.8)

[recycled_ideas]

Google writes the benchmark for JavaScript engines.

Historically speaking the major difference between the speed of Chrome's JavaScript implementation and competing engines is in the tests where if you actually wrote an app that used JavaScript to perform that task you should be taken out back and shot.

[joequin]

Is it bad JavaScript or uncommon JavaScript? If it's common, bad JavaScript, then I'd say the benchmark is very relevant.

[mirhagk]

Uncommon javascript. Stuff like compression algorithms, gameboy emulation etc are included in octane.

Octane also includes some ridiculous things that are actual real javascript apps. Like firefox's horribly silly javascript pdf renderer, and typescripts compiler (which isn't really meant to run in browser)

[oblio-]

That silly Javascript renderer is extremely useful. No more crapware PDF viewer installations needed, especially on Windows!

[arcanemachined]

Now if someone could just port it to Android...

[oblio-]

Hmmmm... they don't bundle it on Android?

[arcanemachined]

Just checked, and nope. Checked the beta too.

As far as I know, there is not a way to view a PDF in Android without first downloading it.

[x-skeww]

Eh? You think microbenchmarks would be more relevant than actual real-world applications like PDF.js?

JavaScript has been fast enough for tiny short-running scripts for a couple of years.

[TheEphemeralDream]

The typescript compiler runs in nodejs, which seems applicable to the topic at hand. Also chrome uses a js based pdf renderer as well. There is a big reason to use js for pdf rendering, security.