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Show HN: I worked on a new browser for 2 years, today it passed Acid 3

code.intellios.ai

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Re: Show HN: I worked on a new browser for 2 years, today it passed Acid 3

#33

If you're going to "Show HN" you should show something. This just a hastily-extruded [1] landing page with no details. Also, using an agentic framework and writing code by hand "a lot of the time" does not count as "from scratch". [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49129191

Working with it for 2 years is impressive nevertheless.

Working with an agentic framework for more than a week make me want to throw it over the cliff

Re: Show HN: I worked on a new browser for 2 years, today it passed Acid 3

#34
Acid3 is 100 tests but to have a browser that works on any real percentage of the internet you need to pass the over 52000 tests and nearly two million subtests [1] that make up the Web Platform Tests [2]

This is like the difference between a college degree and passing a spelling test.

1. https://servo.org/blog/2023/07/20/servo-web-platform-tests/ 2. https://github.com/web-platform-tests/wpt

Not to mention this site is clearly vibe coded and has a vague call to action and no source code available thus indicating possible vaporware.

Re: Show HN: I worked on a new browser for 2 years, today it passed Acid 3

#35

If you're going to "Show HN" you should show something. This just a hastily-extruded [1] landing page with no details. Also, using an agentic framework and writing code by hand "a lot of the time" does not count as "from scratch". [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49129191

It’s from scratch not by scratch

Re: Show HN: I worked on a new browser for 2 years, today it passed Acid 3

#37
Congrats! Even if this is vibecoded, this is a hard task to get just a barebones renderer working.

I do concur with the few other folks here that the ShowHN is meant for actually showcasing something rather than the landing page with a screenshot. I would expect it to link to a downloadable binary or the source.

Showcasing Web Platform Tests coverage would be better than just Acid 3.

For anyone else wondering why this is hard: I'm writing a browser engine that renders to png. I dug into the source code of other browser engines and came across scenarios that I had never imagined. I learnt about font rasterization, execution contexts for scripts, etc. There's a tonne of stuff to be learnt by building something like this.

Supporting iframes and each group of the web platform APIs, each add another layer of complexity that I definitely dont want to be tackling as a solo dev.

Re: Show HN: I worked on a new browser for 2 years, today it passed Acid 3

#38
post #5

Modern browsers should no longer score 100 on Acid 3 though. >By April 2017, the updated specifications had diverged from the test such that the latest versions of Google Chrome, Safari and Mozilla Firefox no longer pass the test as written

Yes, but considering the goal of his project is a proof of concept, that is, proving this project is possible, acid3 is a good place to start to prove the worth of the project and aiming 100% first make more sense. Tweaks will be needed one way or another to make it equivalent to the big 3.

For a piece of software designed by reading the specs and implementing accordingly, there acid3 would be a good way of demonstrating the quality of the result.

But is that what happened? If you pass tests that conflict with the specs, then that implies that the implementation is not based on specs, but on feedback from the test. Which means it may be designed to pass the test, and not much good once you go outside the test examples.

I'll extend the benefit of the doubt and say that it's possible that the implementation is based on an older version of specs, one that matches the tests. But it doesn't inspire confidence that all we're shown is a single screenshot and no source code.

Re: Show HN: I worked on a new browser for 2 years, today it passed Acid 3

#39
post #35

If you're going to "Show HN" you should show something. This just a hastily-extruded [1] landing page with no details. Also, using an agentic framework and writing code by hand "a lot of the time" does not count as "from scratch". [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49129191

It’s from scratch not by scratch

a distinction without a difference
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