Edge has been getting a high amount of praises from all sides recently, mainly due to its speed. While not available for all platforms, many of us cannot dispute these claims until we install Windows 10 and test it for ourselves.
The main culprits for Edge's speed are Microsoft's new browser engine, EdgeHTML, the older Chakra JavaScript engine, and its Universal Windows Platform.
To let developers truly get a grasp of what these tools are capable of, Microsoft has created an open-source browser that runs as a UWP application and uses the platform's WebView control to interact with the EdgeHTML engine.
The browser has been built using standard Web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (ES6), and is a simple container for the WebView controller.
"These same techniques can be used in any UWP application to seamlessly integrate web content,"
says the Microsoft Edge Team, referring to the fact that any Windows application built on the modern Universal Windows Platform can host the WebView control and process Web content using the very same engine used with Edge itself.
A browser built in an afternoon, but still faster than most
As Josh Rennert, Program Manager for Microsoft Edge, explains, "with the
WebView control, we were able to create a simple web browser using standard web technology in just an afternoon."
He didn't specify how many developers worked on the project in a single "afternoon," but the browser they created comes with many of the features you find in Edge, and in all basic browsers.
This includes back and forward buttons, a title bar, favicon support, an address bar to type in URLs, a refresh button, and a settings panel.
Additionally, there are also a favorites button and menu for managing bookmarks, and a button for sharing the current page on Twitter.
