Friday, 26. September 2008, 18:22:57
Safari 4 beta first browser to hit 100% score in Acid3 test
By Christian Zibreg, Friday, September 26, 2008 11:28
Chicago (IL) - The latest beta of the WebKit engine that runs beneath Apple’s Safari and other browsers has achieved 100/100 score in the Acid3 test, which means that the Safari 4 beta has reached a significant milestone in terms of web standards compliance. Opera closely follows Safari while Microsoft's Internet Explorer versions score the lowest marks.
The Acid3 test is generally considered as a benchmark to determine how well a web browser follows web standards and at least as of now, Safari 4 beta is the most compliant browser. To pass the test, a browser has to use default settings, the animation has to be smooth, the score has to end on 100/100, and the final page has to look exactly, pixel by pixel, like the reference rendering. Beta versions of Safari's WebKit and Opera's Presto engines hit the two of the three conditions, a 100/100 score and matching the reference rendering, back in March.
"Now, thanks to recent speedups in JavaScript, DOM and rendering, we have passed the third condition, smooth animation on reference hardware," WebKit’s Maciej Stachowiak wrote in a blog post today. The test was run on 2.4 GHz MacBook Pro machine.
The WebKit team said that the perfect score is a result of the fast layout engine and optimizations relating to the Document Object Model (DOM) and JavaScript engine, which we described in detail yesterday.
Safari and Opera lead the pack, IE falls behind
WebKit's achievement leapfrogs all other current browsers that have yet to pass the Acid3 test. For example, Opera 9.52 ends up at 84 points, Safari 3.1.2 at 75 points and Firefox 3.0.2 at 71 points. IE7 shows 14 points and the second beta of IE8 21 points.
Opera's Presto engine hits 99 points, Firefox Gecko 87 and the latest Chrome beta 79.
Mobile browsers generally achieve lower marks due to constrained resources that limit the software’s JavaScript performance and layout engines. Opera Mini leads in this segment with 79 points, followed by Safari (part of iPhone 2.1) with 74 points and the Netfron browser (11). Microsoft's Pocket Internet Explorer that ships with Windows Mobile lacks JavaScript support and cannot run the Acid3 test.
IE8's low score is somewhat of a surprise, since Microsoft repeatedly said that IE8 will strictly adhere to standards so that web developers will not have to tweak their code in order to address differences in how IE renders a web page. IE8's low Acid3 score creates some doubt, but Microsoft has still some time to improve its software until it will be shipping the IE8 final.
How important is the Acid3 score?
Being the first to pass the Acid3 test completely, WebKit has raised the stakes of the game, which may prompt rivals to optimize their JavaScript and layout engines and comply with web standards. The more browsers render pages the same way, the less code tweaking is required to tailor a page for a particular browser. In an ideal world, this trend should result in faster browsers and nicer web pages with fewer errors. DOM and JavaScript optimization are key to pass the Acid3 test completely. JavaScript performance gains translate into smoother and more responsive user interfaces in web applications we use every day. If JavaScript performance increases, we should see many more desktop-like web applications in the future.
You can test your own browser by clicking on this Acid3 test link. To test the latest WebKit-based Safari 4 beta, grab the nightly build and then run the test.
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