Firefox Gets Big JavaScript Improvements
The most recent nightly builds of Firefox 9 integrate type interference and are significantly faster in JavaScript benchmarks than the current stable Firefox versions. David Mandelin, in charge of the JavaScript engine at Mozilla, wrote in a blog post that Firefox gains about 44 percent speed in Kraken and about 30 percent in Google's V8 benchmark, thanks to the addition of type inference. The Firefox 9 nightly build can be downloaded here.
Mozilla has also been working on a new JIT called IonMonkey, which will replace the current JaegerMonkey in a future version of Firefox. Mozilla has been hiring full-time developers for IonMonkey and recently said that a project team has been put together. The stated goal is to make IonMonkey fast enough so it can "beat" Google's Crankshaft.
There is no release schedule for IonMonkey yet, but we would expect type interference to debut with Firefox 9 on December 20.
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That's quite a substantial increase
Hopefully it makes a nice real world performance increase.
What happened to the Firefox girl?
Firefox 9? Seriously??
I know that version numbers don't mean as much as they used to, but still, version 4 came out in March, version 5 in June, and version 6 in August.
This has become ridiculous.
Your telling me, Steelwing.. us poor web developer have to support all those new versions. Ack! :-p
Too bad it needs HUGE memory management improvements.
Too bad it needs HUGE memory management improvements.
FF6 did this. So much smoother now... before you say a single word about Chrome, no, it is NOT faster on my netbook.
What ever Mozilla does usually,is good for their browser.
@ Steelwing: It's Firefox 9, because it's a pre-alpha channel. Think about it
Good One! cpu666d1,you've said it all...
i guess i'm like most people who just upgrade whenever a new version is officially released, not really wanting to know why.
i don't like how version releases have increased to be so fast to copy chrome. It's stupid, each release doesnt mean anything and isn't exciting. And the worse part is like gmarsack said... how can developers keep up? the best thing about firefox is still its addons, and mozilla is going so fast now that my favourite addons only work for about a week before they need to be updated. developers will eventually give up and mozilla will have forsaken their browsers strongest aspect!
Hmmmm.... and yet I can run 99% of the websites worth going to with noscript running. Even with it off, there's no site worth going to that can max out any of my PC's CPU on Javascript.
Can we please stop pretending that hypothetical synthetic Javascript speed is a reason to use a browser.
This Javascript enhancement would've constituted a major version jump in my opinion.
the best thing about firefox is still its addons, and mozilla is going so fast now that my favourite addons only work for about a week before they need to be updated.
Try the add-on called "Add-on Compatibility Reporter". It'll forcefully enable your add-ons so that you don't have to worry about version numbers anymore. Of course, if something genuinely doesn't work, you can report it and hopefully it will get fixed. I've found very few add-ons that are actually broken by the new versions and not just disabled.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fi [...] -reporter/
I am waiting for Firefox 57. It should be released by April, 2012 based on Mozilla's current release plans. Until then, I'm sticking with Netscape Navigator 3.0. At least Netscape doesn't steal 2 GB of my RAM memory to run a browser, like Firefox's amazingly space-aged browser crap. Note to self: release ear flaps so steam can escape from ersatz brain vents.
I should reinstall Mozillas Firefox & check this new java script improvements.
Wasn't Firefox already the faster browser when it comes to JavaScript? IMO they should've improved in the areas Firefox falls behind the competition.
What is "type interference"??? Type inference maybe? Sometimes the spellchecker can be a hindifference.
Firefox always has the tendency to come out with fast and buggy products, and slowing them down like crazy when going over to a new build!
Do you actually believe that from ff2 to now, they only had speed improvements?
If I'm correct the newer firefox will be more compatible, but won't be faster than FF 2.2.
They bloat the software so much that by the new release people will notice the speed improvements!
And those who are stuck with an older computer or for instance Windows 98 (for compatibility/hardware reasons), are stuck with a lousy browser!
What happened to the Firefox girl?
She caught an STD from cheating!
When in the world will Mozilla make Firefox be able to take advantage of more than 1 CPU? When I tell FF8 to restore 25 tabs, the firefox.exe process is begged close to 50% CPU usage (1 full core 100% utilized), and this is on a very beefy internet connection. I have done many tests and have concluded that Firefox's rendering engine cannot use more than 1 CPU, which is retarded because Google Chrome does! Up to 1 core per tab.