How Browsers Work (2012)

I've known a few people (including myself) who have casually thought about what it would take to write a new browser engine. Obviously it's a titanic undertaking and unrealistic project but one thing I considered recently:

There are a ton of new API's the browser has added since HTML5 giving all sorts of capabilities. Hell, Chrome can access USB devices on your host if you allow it permissions.

But is there a canonical list of all standardized web API's somewhere? Something that a browser engine developer could look at to decide what API's are must haves and what are optional.

Re: How Browsers Work (2012)

#5

Post by swiley » Tue, Nov 17, 2020, 1:17 PM UTC

the_only_law wrote: post #4

I've known a few people (including myself) who have casually thought about what it would take to write a new browser engine. Obviously it's a titanic undertaking and unrealistic project but one thing I considered recently: There are a ton of new API's the browser has added since HTML5 giving all sorts of capabilities. Hell, Chrome can access USB devices on your host if you allow it permissions. But is there a canonic…

That's what the documents the W3C maintains are supposed to be.

Re: How Browsers Work (2012)

#6

Post by akling » Tue, Nov 17, 2020, 1:33 PM UTC

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #2

This says Webkit uses flex and bison for HTML parsing.

It says it uses flex and bison for CSS parsing, which was true at the time of writing. It was replaced by a hand-written parser by Dave Hyatt in 2016.

Re: How Browsers Work (2012)

#7

Post by la_fayette » Tue, Nov 17, 2020, 1:46 PM UTC

Is there any newer work on that matter published somewhere?

Re: How Browsers Work (2012)

#8

Post by userbinator » Tue, Nov 17, 2020, 2:37 PM UTC

the_only_law wrote: post #4

I've known a few people (including myself) who have casually thought about what it would take to write a new browser engine. Obviously it's a titanic undertaking and unrealistic project but one thing I considered recently: There are a ton of new API's the browser has added since HTML5 giving all sorts of capabilities. Hell, Chrome can access USB devices on your host if you allow it permissions. But is there a canonic…

I have also had that thought for a long time (nearly a decade), remember seeing this article and progressed beyond thought to start writing some code, but naturally have plenty of other things to work on, so it's been very slow going. I have in mind only something comparable to NetSurf or Dillo, but even that is not trivial.

Re: How Browsers Work (2012)

#9

Post by lucideer » Tue, Nov 17, 2020, 2:45 PM UTC

the_only_law wrote: post #4

I've known a few people (including myself) who have casually thought about what it would take to write a new browser engine. Obviously it's a titanic undertaking and unrealistic project but one thing I considered recently: There are a ton of new API's the browser has added since HTML5 giving all sorts of capabilities. Hell, Chrome can access USB devices on your host if you allow it permissions. But is there a canonic…

> is there a canonical list of all standardized web API's somewhere

MDN[0] is probably the best list intended for this purpose, but it's easier to use if you already know what you're looking for.

While not explicitly its intent, I think caniuse[1] may be a better list for top-level browsing.

[0] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API

[1] https://caniuse.com/ciu/index

Re: How Browsers Work (2012)

#10

Post by Tade0 » Tue, Nov 17, 2020, 2:54 PM UTC

the_only_law wrote: post #4

I've known a few people (including myself) who have casually thought about what it would take to write a new browser engine. Obviously it's a titanic undertaking and unrealistic project but one thing I considered recently: There are a ton of new API's the browser has added since HTML5 giving all sorts of capabilities. Hell, Chrome can access USB devices on your host if you allow it permissions. But is there a canonic…

These guys:

https://www.ekioh.com/flow-browser/

Probably had to ask themselves the same question. Not sure if they have a published list though.