The WebKit team is currently busy, integrating the patches made for Google Chrome into the main WebKit repository. This includes the new V8 JavaScript engine and the Skia graphics library. Most integration work is done by Google employee and WebKit reviewer Eric Seidel. V8 is a fast, BSD licensed JavaScript engine that runs on 32bit x86 and ARM CPUs. Due that platform restriction, V8 probably won't replace WebKit's new SquirrelFish engine anytime soon as default, because SquirrelFish has broader CPU architecture support. Epiphany developer and WebKit reviewer Alp Toker gives an overview about Skia. Unlike V8, Skia is licensed under the Apache License 2.0. Some of Skia's main features are optional OpenGL-based acceleration, thread-safety, 10,000 less lines of code compared to Cairo, and high portability.
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Member since:
2005-07-06
Do you mean "app" as in Chrome or "app" as in WebKit? Cairo might be available on Linux or *BSD, but on other platforms frankly it's a huge pain in the backside to port and maintain, and I'd rather do without it.
Thankfully WebKit is nicely abstracted so it's not something I have to worry about: I won't have to use Cairo or Skia if I don't want too.