[Sugar-devel] webkit, hulahop; developing apps using browser engine DOM for widgets

[Jonas Smedegaard]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: RIPEMD160

I wrote earlier:
>> Politics aside, I do not doubt that webkit might perform better than 
>> mozilla.  In some situations.  Optimized in certain ways.  'Cause 
>> there are a bunch of complex factors, as I understand it (and I don't 
>> understand it that deeply, really).

On Wed, Jun 10, 2009 at 03:22:37PM +0100, Lucian Branescu wrote:
>Before GSoC started, I did my own tests of webkit vs gecko. Firefox
>lost everywhere and lost especially bad on memory usage.
>
>http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/317039/webkit%20vs%20gecko%20osx.txt
>http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/317039/webkit%20vs%20gecko%20soas.txt
>http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/317039/webkit%20vs%20gecko%20winxp.txt

Did you simply test default configurations of each tools, or is the 
optimizations documented somewhere?

As I understand it, especially the large tools ike Mozilla can be 
optimized for different purposes.

Example: prefetching pages (default enabled in Mozilla) is probably bad 
on memory and has no benefit in load-a-bunch-as-fast-as-possible tests 
but improves perceived load time in load-pause-load scenarios (i.e. 
normal web browsing).

I can also imagine how image buffering hurts memory but affects e.g. 
scrolling performance.


So it really makes little sense to me to compare default settings of 
these tools, if the purpose is to find the best performance in netbooks: 
Mozilla defualt are most likely optimized for more powerful hardware.

Either investigate options to tune and document all optimizations, or 
compare browsers (based on each of the core frameworks) that are 
optimized for low-ressource environments.

The gecko-based Kazehakase is (according to its author, which I had the 
opportunity to meet in person when invited to Japan a few years ago) 
leaner than Firefox, but still targeted normal desktop environment.  
Newer releases of it seems to support switching between gecko and webkit 
as backend.  Perhaps that is a good candidate for head-to-head 
comparison of similarly targeted tools.

Epiphany seems to also support both gecko and webkit backends.

Sorry, I have no suggestions for ideal tools to compare for this 
challenge - tools that are optimized for reduced memory footprint while 
still being targeted normal X11 environment.


  - Jonas

- -- 
* Jonas Smedegaard - idealist og Internet-arkitekt
* Tlf.: +45 40843136  Website: http://dr.jones.dk/

  [x] quote me freely  [ ] ask before reusing  [ ] keep private
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux)

iEYEAREDAAYFAkov8bQACgkQn7DbMsAkQLhYRwCfXNu2CWy2Cw7HN0izXJncyphk
8H8AmwX/FCkBIgCdzkSrtml6xLrc9Hw2
=QFId
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----