Blink (web engine)
| Developer(s) | The Chromium Project with contributions from Google, Opera Software, Adobe Systems, Intel, Samsung and others |
|---|---|
| Initial release | April 3, 2013[1] |
| Repository | chromium |
| Written in | C++ |
| Operating system | Cross-platform |
| Type | Layout engine |
| License | Three-clause BSD and GNU LGPL v2.1 |
| Website | chromium |
Blink is a web browser engine developed as part of the Chromium project[2] by The Chromium Project with contributions from Google, Opera Software ASA, Adobe Systems, Intel, Samsung and others.[3][4] It was first announced in April 2013.[5]
Engine[edit]
Blink is a fork of the WebCore component of WebKit[6], which is originally a fork of the KHTML and KJS libraries from KDE[7][8]. It is used in Chrome starting at version 28,[9][10] Opera (15+),[9] Amazon Silk and other Chromium-based browsers and frameworks.
Much of WebCore's code is used for features which Chrome implements differently (such as sandboxing and the multi-process model). These parts were altered for the Blink fork, and although made slightly bulkier, it allowed greater flexibility for adding new features in the future. The fork will also deprecate vendor prefixes; experimental functionality will instead be enabled on an opt-in basis.[11] Aside from these planned changes, Blink currently remains relatively similar to WebCore.[10] By commit count, Google has been the largest contributor to the WebKit code base since late 2009.[12]
Blink's naming was influenced by the non-standard presentational blink HTML tag, which was introduced by Netscape Navigator, and supported by Presto and Gecko-based browsers until August 2013.[2][13][14]
Frameworks[edit]
Several projects exist to turn Chromium’s Blink into a reusable software framework for other developers:
- Since version 4.4 of the Android operating system the WebView component is based on Blink instead of WebKit. [15]
- Chromium Embedded Framework is widely used in software by Adobe Systems,[16][17] streaming media services such as Spotify,[18][19] video game services such as Battle.net and Steam,[20] etc.[21]
- Electron is a Node.js based framework developed by GitHub.
- In the Qt 5 framework the WebEngine module supersedes the previous QtWebKit module.[21][22]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ "[chrome] Log of /releases/28.0.1463.0/DEPS". Src.chromium.org. Retrieved 2016-12-31.
- ^ a b Lardinois, Frederic (2013-04-03). "Google Forks WebKit And Launches Blink, A New Rendering Engine That Will Soon Power Chrome And Chrome OS". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2013-11-25.
- ^ "Contents of /trunk/src/AUTHORS". chromium.org.
- ^ "Google, Opera Fork WebKit. Samsung Joins Firefox to Push Servo". infoq.com. April 2013.
- ^ "Blink: A rendering engine for the Chromium project". The Chromium Blog. Retrieved 3 April 2013.
- ^ "Which webkit revision is Blink forking from?". blink-dev mailing list. Retrieved 18 April 2013.
- ^ "'(fwd) Greetings from the Safari team at Apple Computer' – MARC". Lists.kde.org. January 7, 2003. Retrieved May 2, 2017.
- ^ "The WebKit Open Source Project". Retrieved April 7, 2012.
- ^ a b "Blink". QuirksBlog. April 2013. Retrieved 4 April 2013.
- ^ a b "Google going its own way, forking WebKit rendering engine". Ars Technica. April 2013. Retrieved 4 April 2013.
- ^ "Blink Developer FAQ". The Chromium Projects. Retrieved 22 October 2014.
- ^ Siracusa, John (2013-04-12). "Hypercritical: Code Hard or Go Home". Hypercritical.co. Retrieved 2013-06-15.
- ^ Kobie, Nicole (2013-08-07). "Firefox 23 finally kills "blink" tag". PC Pro. Retrieved 2013-11-25.
- ^ Shankland, Stephen (2013-04-03). "Google parts ways with Apple over WebKit, launches Blink". CNet. Retrieved 2013-11-25.
- ^ "WebView for Android". Google. Retrieved 2017-04-22.
- ^ Hallgrimur Bjornsson. "Introducing HTML5 extensions". Adobe Systems.
- ^ "Adobe Edge Animate Team Blog". Adobe Systems.
- ^ "Open Source". Spotify.com. Retrieved 2016-12-31.
- ^ "CEF integration in Dreamweaver". Helpx.adobe.com. Retrieved 2016-12-31.
- ^ "Chromium Embedded Framework - Valve Developer Community". Developer.valvesoftware.com. Retrieved 2016-12-31.
- ^ a b "Developer diary: Creating a desktop client for Conclave - 10×10 Room". 10x10room.com. 2014-04-24. Retrieved 2016-12-31.
- ^ "Qt WebEngine Overview". Qt Project. Retrieved 2016-12-31.
