Blink is a browser engine developed as part of the Chromium project. To create the Chrome browser, Google chose to use Apple's WebKit engine. However, Google needed to make changes to the WebKit code to support its novel multi-process browser architecture,[1][2] and the increasing divergence from Apple's version led Google to officially fork its version as Blink in 2013.[1][2]
| Developer(s) | The Chromium Project |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 3 April 2013[1] |
| Repository | |
| Written in | C++ |
| Type | Browser engine |
| License | BSD and LGPLv2.1 |
| Website | www |
Naming
Blink's naming was influenced by a combination of two major factors: the connotations of speed, and a reference to the non-standard presentational blink HTML element,[3][4] which was introduced by Netscape Navigator and supported by Presto- and Gecko-based browsers until August 2013.[5] Blink has, contrary to its name, never functionally supported the element.
History
By commit count, Google was the largest contributor to the WebKit project from late 2009 until 2013,[6] when Google's modified version was officially forked as Blink.[1][2] Much of the unwanted WebKit code was used for features that Google implemented differently in Chromium, such as sandboxing and the multi-process model. These parts were altered from the beginning. Blink also deprecated CSS vendor prefixes; experimental functionality is instead enabled on an opt-in basis.[7]
Internals
Blink engine has the following components:[8]
- DOM, HTML DOM and CSS rendering engines
- Web IDL implementation
- Skia Graphics engine — makes calls to an underlying Graphics Library (like OpenGL, Vulkan, DirectX etc) which depends on the platform
Public API
Blink exposes a public API that allows browsers such as Chromium to interact with Blink while remaining insulated from internal changes to the browser engine.[9]
See also
References
- ^ a b c d Barth, Adam (April 3, 2013). "Chromium Blog: Blink: A rendering engine for the Chromium project". Blog.chromium.org. Archived from the original on April 4, 2013. Retrieved June 14, 2013.
- ^ a b c Bright, Peter (3 April 2013). "Google going its own way, forking WebKit rendering engine". Ars Technica. Conde Nast. Retrieved 9 March 2017.
- ^ Lardinois, Frederic (3 April 2013). "Google Forks WebKit And Launches Blink, A New Rendering Engine That Will Soon Power Chrome And Chrome OS". TechCrunch. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
- ^ Shankland, Stephen (3 April 2013). "Google parts ways with Apple over WebKit, launches Blink". CNet. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
- ^ Kobie, Nicole (7 August 2013). "Firefox 23 finally kills "blink" tag". PC Pro. Archived from the original on 2 December 2013. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
- ^ Siracusa, John (12 April 2013). "Hypercritical: Code Hard or Go Home". Hypercritical.co. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
- ^ "Blink Developer FAQ". The Chromium Projects. Retrieved 22 October 2014.
- ^ "How Blink works". Google Docs. Retrieved 6 May 2021.
- ^ "Blink Public API". chromium.googlesource.com. Retrieved 15 August 2022.