Developer(s) | The Chromium Project and contributors |
---|---|
Initial release | 3 April 2013[1] |
Written in | C++ |
Type | Browser engine |
License | BSD and LGPLv2.1 |
Website | www |
Blink is a browser engine developed as part of the Chromium project with contributions from Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Opera Software, Vivaldi Technologies, Adobe, Intel, IBM, Samsung, and others.[2][3][4] It was first announced in April 2013.[5]
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,[6][7] which was introduced by Netscape Navigator and supported by Presto- and Gecko-based browsers until August 2013.[8] Blink has, contrary to its name, never functionally supported the element.
Blink is a fork of the WebCore component of WebKit,[9] which was originally a fork of the KHTML and KJS libraries from KDE.[10][11] It's used in Chrome starting at version 28,[12][13] Microsoft Edge starting at version 79,[14] Opera (15+),[12] Vivaldi, Brave, Amazon Silk and other Chromium-based browsers and frameworks.[citation needed]
Much of WebCore's code was used for features that Google Chrome implemented differently such as sandboxing and the multi-process model. These parts were altered for the Blink fork, and although slightly bulkier, it allowed greater flexibility for adding new features. The fork also deprecates CSS vendor prefixes; existing prefixes will be phased out and new experimental functionality will instead be enabled on an opt-in basis.[15] Aside from these planned changes, Blink initially remained relatively similar to WebCore.[13]
By commit count, Google was the largest contributor to the WebKit code base from late 2009 until 2013 when they started work on their fork, Blink.[16]
Blink engine has the following components:[17]
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.[18]
Several projects exist to turn Chromium's Blink into a reusable software framework for other developers:
Chromium Blink is implemented on seven platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux, ChromeOS, Fuchsia, Android, and Android WebView.
Blink is also unofficially supported on FreeBSD[30] and OpenBSD.[31]
iOS versions of Chromium continue to use the WebKit WebCore renderer.[32]
![]() | Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blink (browser engine).
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