Web Browser as a Uniform Application Platform: How Far Are We?

The conventional Web browser has evolved from a viewer of static HTML pages into a platform executing fully-featured platform-independent Web applications. This transition sets an ever-increasing load to the underlying browser technology, and demand for higher performance and compatibility. In this paper, we claim that the compatibility between the browsers has improved, but the differences are still numerous, and in addition to differences in implemented features, also performance differences are considerable. We base our experiences on porting a JavaScript based piece of software, the Lively Kernel by Sun Microsystems Laboratories, to different browser platforms and running benchmarks with the resulting systems.