WebKit2 and the Split-Process Model

Still in development:

WebKit2 is a new API layer for WebKit designed from the ground up to support a split process model, where the web content (JavaScript, HTML, layout, etc) lives in a separate process from the application UI. This model is very similar to what Google Chrome offers, with the major difference being that we have built the process split model directly into the framework, allowing other clients of WebKit to use it.

After publishing my piece today on why the Nitro JavaScript engine isn’t available system-wide in iOS 4.3, several readers reminded me of the in-progress WebKit2 project. Surely, this will eventually come to iOS, and when it does, it solves a lot of problems for Apple. I think iOS 4.3 granting Mobile Safari an exception to the rule against marking pages in memory executable is a stopgap.

★ Thursday, 17 March 2011