Apple’s iOS7 Native JavaScript Bridge

Re:Apple’s iOS7 Native JavaScript Bridge by mistercow on Friday November 22, 2013 @01:47PM (#6782826)

They could potentially do it with IPC, running the JS engine (or even the entire web view) in a separate process. The question then is whether the communication overhead can be minimized so that it doesn't cancel out the performance benefits of the JIT.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Apple’s iOS7 Native JavaScript Bridge by eonil on Saturday November 23, 2013 @12:43AM (#6785380)

They're doing that for Quartz.

But I doubt what will drive Apple to improve JS performance. Because making people to use Objective-C is a lot beneficial to Apple.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Apple’s iOS7 Native JavaScript Bridge by mistercow on Saturday November 23, 2013 @11:20AM (#6786394)

Interesting. If they're doing it for Quartz, then that pretty much answers the overhead question. I suspect you are right that Apple feels very little motivation to improve support for languages and environments that don't lock you into their system. Or at least, they wouldn't have under Jobs.

But I don't think it is true that this strategy is actually more beneficial to Apple. Developers want to support multiple platforms, and the least expensive way to do that is often HTML5. That's why PhoneGap is popular, despite the poor JS performance. The extra cost of doing separate apps is ultimately paid not only by third party developers, but by Apple as well. To make a long story short, encouraging a cross platform environment would allow good developers to make higher quality apps.

Much as I dislike Apple these days, the difference between iOS and Android is such that I have trouble maintaining a straight face when I hear them compared. They don't need to compete on app availability.

[ Parent | on HN ]