The Year in Review: W3C Web Performance Working Group
Fast HTML5 Web applications benefit consumers who browse the Web and developers building innovative new experiences. Measuring performance characteristics of Web
applications and writing efficient applications are two important aspects of making
Web sites fast. Browser manufacturers can rapidly address developers’
needs through interoperable APIs when collaboratively partnering through the W3C.
One year ago today, the W3C announced the formation of a
Web Performance Working Group chartered with two goals:
making it easier to measure and understand the performance characteristics of Web
applications and defining interoperable methods to write more CPU- and power-efficient
applications.
Together with Google, Mozilla, Facebook, and other industry and community leaders
who participate in the W3C Web Performance Working Group, we designed the Navigation Timing,
Resource Timing, User
Timing and
Performance Timeline specifications to help developers accurately
measure Web application performance. The first three specifications, Navigation
Timing, Resource Timing, and User Timing, define interfaces for Web applications
to access timing information related to the navigation of the document, resources
on the page, and developer scripts, respectively. The Performance Timeline specification
defines a unifying interface to retrieve this timing data.
Resource Timing, User Timing, and Performance Timeline specifications are
all in the Last Call phase of specification. Last Call is a signal that the working group believes
the spec is functionally complete and is ready for broad review from both other
working groups and the public at large. This Last Call period extends until
September 15, 2011. The Navigation Timing specification is already in the Candidate
Recommendation phase and has two interoperable implementations, starting with Internet
Explorer 9 and Chrome 6. Together these APIs help Web developers create faster
and more efficient applications by providing insights into the performance characteristics
of their applications that just weren’t possible before.
Over the last four months, the Web Performance Working Group defined interoperable
methods to write more CPU- and power-efficient applications by producing the
Page Visibility, Timing control
for script-based animations, and
Efficient Script Yielding specifications. The Page Visibility specification
is in the Last Call phase until September 8th and has two implementations starting
with the second IE10 Platform Preview and Chrome 13. The requestAnimationFrame API,
from the Timing control for script-based animations specification, has three implementations
starting with the second IE10 Platform Preview, Firefox 4 and Chrome 10. This specification
is very close to entering Last Call. For more information on these two APIs, see
the blog posts on using PC Hardware more efficiently with these APIs (link
and
link). IE10 is the first browser to implement the emerging setImmediate
API from the Efficient Script Yielding specification.
It’s encouraging to see how much progress we’ve collectively made in just one year. These
APIs are a great example of how quickly new ideas can become interoperable standards
that developers can depend on in modern HTML5-enabled browsers. Thanks to everyone
in the W3C Web Performance Working Group for helping design these APIs and to other
browser vendors for starting to implement these APIs with an eye towards interoperability.
—Jatinder Mann, Program Manager, IE Performance
Comments
Anonymous
August 17, 2011
It's great that IE is becoming a strong standard complaint. Would be even nicer, should you guys keep reiterating and enhancing the UI, for example: connect.microsoft.com/.../ie-10-ui-smooth-scrolling-and-better-tab-management connect.microsoft.com/.../create-download-and-few-improvements-required-in-ies-download-managerAnonymous
August 17, 2011
Question: This issue was resolved in IE9 www.martinezdelizarrondo.com/.../textarea In IE10 pp2, when we refresh the page the updated textbox value is reverted. Does it regress or the Refresh mechanism for temporary UI for previews is different than one in IE9 RTM? Should we call it an issue?Anonymous
August 17, 2011
So we're going to see IndexedDB or WebSQL in IE10 - right? :DAnonymous
August 17, 2011
And WebSockets too :)Anonymous
August 17, 2011
IE TEAM CAN YOU SEE WHAT THIS GUY IS SAYING IN connect.microsoft.com/.../625057 I DONT WANT TO HAVE A SEPERATE DOWNLOAD MANAGER INSTALLED ON MY COMPUTER ANYMORE!!Anonymous
August 17, 2011
Yeah, and it would be wonderful if lamers could just stop using the comments here to ask for features they have no clue about... Anyway: continue the good work, please don't start implementing unfinished standards by demagogy... what you've been doing in the last two releases is great. Hope to see some members of the team @ the BUILD conf next month.Anonymous
August 17, 2011
Please add:!
- Spellchecker
- Ability to separate tabs into windows ( Done already: ) and integrate them again in one window ( Please :),there should be a lock and unlock option for this.
Anonymous
August 17, 2011
The comment has been removedAnonymous
August 18, 2011
Booooring. We want a new PP! :DAnonymous
August 18, 2011
There is one feature that would make javascript 2 or 3 times faster easily: add int8, int16, int32, int64, float32 and float64 types to the javascript specification. Considering the performance and battery life issues, it's nonsense to be stuck with only a "var" type.Anonymous
August 18, 2011
The comment has been removedAnonymous
August 19, 2011
FYI: The next set of announcements regarding IE10 functionality will be made September 13 at the //BUILD/ Windows conference (http://www.buildwindows.com/). We hope to see many of you there. We’ll begin blogging about the newest features of IE10 on that day.Anonymous
August 19, 2011
at ieblog That's great news Thank you very much for the info.Anonymous
August 19, 2011
The comment has been removedAnonymous
August 19, 2011
Please upgrade blog style/theme like "Building Windows 8" blog. That will look better. Thank you.Anonymous
August 20, 2011
Sorry but Apple site still not working on IE9.Anonymous
August 20, 2011
So we have to wait until the Build Conference on September 13th to hear that Microsoft is finally going to add a Spell Checker to IE?! Why keep it a secret - its not like it is some magical feature that you are worried about other browsers copying! (since they've all had it for years!) By The Way - Releasing this kind of info at a NON-IE / NON-WEB conference is a complete waste of time. Developers building applications for the Web and Mobile couldn't give a rats behind what you are doing in Windows. Period.Anonymous
August 20, 2011
.jxr image file(JPEGXR) support Please.Anonymous
August 20, 2011
Offtopic: It would be great, if IE10 have native Greasemonkey Script Support like Opera, Firefox and Chrome do!Anonymous
August 20, 2011
This should be the headache of Greasemonkey developers to constract an ActiveX plugin for that matter.Anonymous
August 20, 2011
The comment has been removedAnonymous
August 22, 2011
I was asked today what the difference was between IE and Firefox. I replied: "I'm proud to state that I use Firefox every day. I would be ashamed to say the same about IE." It was a profound moment - and I didn't need to say anything more. She downloaded Firefox right after our conversation. I walked past her cubicle 3 hours later and without saying a thing she gave me a double thumbs up! with a massive grin from ear to ear. kind of funny when you think about it - not once have I used the word "awesome" and "IE" in the same sentence - yet I can say multiple things about Firefox & Chrome that are awesome. Microsoft - you really need to work on IE to bring it back to life if you expect future generations to even give it the time of day.Anonymous
August 22, 2011
The comment has been removedAnonymous
August 23, 2011
@Morgan: I'm afraid curing fanboyism is not something the IE team can do. @xpclient: What are "advanced search features" ?Anonymous
August 24, 2011
The comment has been removedAnonymous
August 24, 2011
When will Internet Explorer 10 be in Alpha or beta?Anonymous
August 24, 2011
The comment has been removedAnonymous
August 24, 2011
The comment has been removedAnonymous
August 24, 2011
The comment has been removedAnonymous
August 25, 2011
I think it was a poor decision to provide no recourse for developers to test in IE 9 from Windows XP. With all the hype about IE9 being standards compliant, I am fielding phone calls from users who cannot use portions of our site that are coded by the standards and work in all major browsers (including older versions of IE). They're using Windows 7 + Internet Explorer 9, and until our nonprofit has thousands of dollars to upgrade our workstations to Windows 7, we have absolutely no ability to troubleshoot or provide customer service.Anonymous
August 26, 2011
@Chris Baker: If you want to test, why would you need to upgrade all of your workstations? IE has dev tools, using only one computer you should be able to find out what's wrong. In fact, maybe you could post a link to your website so that Win7 users out there can see what's wrong.Anonymous
August 27, 2011
The comment has been removedAnonymous
August 27, 2011
The comment has been removedAnonymous
August 27, 2011
Nice suggestions, would be great if you publish them on connect.microsoft.com/.../feedback and send us the link.Anonymous
August 28, 2011
before I rant about MS Connect - can someone take an hour at lunch and port the IE Blog to any other platform that doesn't lose comments when readers post? @@Harv - Boycotted MS Connect before IE9 came out. I'm not going to waste my time filling out a bug report to have it sit untouched for a month, then flagged as can't reproduce, then ignored for another month when the directions are re-entered to show exactly (just as before) how the bug is totally and easily reproducible.. then nothing for 6 months.. then flagged as "By Design, Closed" when the next browser version goes into RC. I would be more than willing to help contribute to making IE a better browser - but after being burnt twice by the process on Connect - there's no way in #*$&! that I'll waste another second filing bugs there. @@Harv - If you haven't been burnt yet by Microsoft by all means go for it. Take it from those of us that participated in the IE7 and IE8 programs - its worthless. Heck you can't even see attachments, test cases or anything that other people have uploaded. Worst bug tracking system I've ever used. HarvAnonymous
August 29, 2011
@Harv: I can not confirm your experience with Connect. Your prejudice is incorrect. I have reported about 200 issues (see www.freewebs.com/.../iepp1 ) and in almost all cases I have got a response. Perhaps you have not described your problems carefully enough. A simple, easy to understand testcase helps a lot. Correctly filling out the form as well. Also, testcases are now accessibly by the public, if the uploader wishes so. Please, before ranting, at least make sure the issues you criticise are still there. P.S. If someone from Connect reads this: There is issue #665161 (connect.microsoft.com/.../665161 ). It was not reported by myself, but I have added a testcase. The issue seems similar to issue # 566982 that had been reported by myself. Maybe you could look into that issue. Thanks.Anonymous
August 29, 2011
@the_dees - Although I can't speak for all of @Harv's findings I too found Connect to be a very frustrating experience. I gave up on it shortly after IE8 went out the door. Bugs I filed for IE7 and IE8 were marked as "by Design" - and since "some" of those bugs have now been fixed. I think the biggest issue for me was the lack of transparency. On the one hand it sounded like Microsoft really wanted our help/submissions - but the way our reports received little or no attention (and if remotely technical - they were often not reviewed by someone with technical knowledge). I did see many of your reports, the_dees and I more than welcome your effort but for me my free time provided contributing reports and following up on them with test cases and such seemed extremely wasteful considering the lack of respect returned - and lack of commitment to the process. I appreciate that Connect may well have improved significantly since the IE8 betas - but I'm not willing to waste more time trying to see if it is better now.Anonymous
August 30, 2011
I look forward to the day that IE is revered by all my friends. Maybe that is not possible, but I only help family and friends who use IE. Keep up the good work!Anonymous
August 30, 2011
@Jim Glass MSFT - best of luck with that! I know of no one that reveres IE... I would help my friends and family with their browser anytime - but none of them use IE - so I don't need to help them - they've already upgraded.Anonymous
August 30, 2011
@Jim Glass MSFT - If you personally only support IE that's your problem! Do not come on the IE Blog where Microsoft does their very best to be supportive of the Open Web and Web Standards and suggest for 1 second that anyone should only support one browser! Microsoft PR department - you may want to get in touch with Jim Glass and give his knuckles a quick rap - apparently even though he works on an App for "CRM" he has no clue what is acceptable from a Public Relations perspective. Jim Glass - you've just lost ANY respect you might have got from me with your arcane comments.Anonymous
August 30, 2011
It has been 50 weeks since the release of the beta for IE9. just saying...