Firefox Hopes To One-Up IE With Fast Graphics
Just the previous week, Microsoft displayed the browser technology which helps Internet Explorer in diving into the competition. The question that arises is regarding the text using interfaces called ‘DirectWrite’ and ‘Direct2D’ and hardware-accelerated graphics that offers a simple way of using computing power of graphics cards. They are inbuilt onto Windows 7 and Microsoft is introducing them in Windows Vista and not in Windows XP.
The boost in performance from DirectWrite and Direct2D is the centre of attraction of the Internet Explorer 9 goodies demo from Microsoft. Online maps appear on the screen in a quick pace and the movements of the mouse can be tracked at the exact response time. The text is clear and the sizes changed easily.
On the day of the Microsoft’s demonstration, the evangelist of Mozilla, Chris Blizzard told that they are planning to support Direct2D in Mozilla FireFox and will be the first to introduce it to the world market. The programmer of Mozilla, Bas Schouten, has posted a model of FireFox using the DirectWrite and Direct2D. Mozilla has scheduled to release the FireFox 3.7 version at the start of 2010. So, the organization stated that they need to investigate properly to add Direct2D for FireFox, but are not very clear of shipping it in the Mozilla FireFox.
Microsoft while releasing a demo video of the Direct2D told that they have just started now in the direction of the product cycle. They want to be very precise to the developers about their approach and the progress they have achieved till now.
The race has started considering the commercial success of Windows 7 and the potential benefits of the new interface. Microsoft is pressurizing its developers, but the browser of the company has beat FireFox and other enemies in various technological fields for several years. Most of the Web developers dislike the old IE versions which are still used everywhere. The market of IE has deteriorated considerably, but it is still dominant among the others.
The programmer of Chrome, Peter Kasting, while pointing out to the blog posted by Schouten told that if they can speed up the time, the result will turn out to be a smooth one. He also showed interest in Chrome supporting DirectWrite although he mentioned that there are very few chances of it working since the ‘sandbox’ design feature present at the moment will not desert the browser’s elements fro reasons of security.
Schouten provided a graph which showed enhanced performance by displaying a collection of Web pages. Google, Twitter and Facebook displayed in just half of the time via the Direct2D. Wikipedia and Slashdot entry remain unchanged. A taxing page which uses the SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics format) illustrates resizable, movable graphics and took the time ranging from 11ms to 4ms or even less. An ancient technology by name ‘Graphics Device Interface’ (GDI) is being replaced by the Direct2D in Windows XP.
Both work similarly, providing a way to peep into the computing hardware, without thinking about the specs of the settings of the video cards and its capabilities. The Direct2D delve into the features of hardware acceleration. The technology allows the programmers in controlling key elements like resizable photos, transparent boxes and curved lines.
From these, the elements of the user interface are designed. Direct2D summons the graphics processor of a computer to increase the speed. This is extremely favorable in dynamic situations which can change the properties of the element like size, opacity and color. DirectWrite provides an identical boost to the graphics chip to display text. Specifically, DirectWrite provides a great sophisticated mechanism to display the text while availing the advantage of a special letter positioning called ‘sub-pixel positioning of letters.’
Every pixel present on the LCD screen is made up of 3 small slices: for blue, red and green components and a ‘sub-pixel technology’ which draws letters delicately using the pixels’ pieces to enhance the complete appearance. The ancient GDI allowed the feature ‘sub-pixel positioning’ but only made the letters in the horizontal direction smooth. But DirectWrite smoothens the letters in the vertical direction also. Many advantages are available if you use the graphics chip in both ‘DirectWrite’ and ‘Direct2D’ operations.
If the programmers have more power at their will, then they can easily accept ambitious and challenging projects. The central processor which is suited for general purposes is not efficient in handling tasks involving graphics, but handles the other tasks very well, thereby reducing the battery power consumption. FireFox possesses its own graphics system by name ‘Cairo.’ Schouten has also added a DirectWrite and Direct2D. The Firefox browser does not work on Windows.
John Daggett from Mozilla told in his blog that the technology, DirectWrite helps the Windows OS in competing with its enemies. He also stated that the Platform Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) on Linux and Mac OS X have done a commendable job in delivering the Postscript Compact Font Format (CFF) fonts. All these will help them balance under Windows 7. Schouten told that the they have made enormous amount of progress and are ready to launch a complete browser of FireFox , which is delivered using Direct2D and by using the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) intensively.
He also added that many other projects will be benefited since Cairo is being utilized by other open-source software. From Mozilla, the news is that the second effort of Mozilla in the field of hardware acceleration is the ‘Direct2D.’ The company has also planned to work on another hardware acceleration interface by name, ‘OpenGL’ which is exclusively for mobile gadgets by using the Tegra chips of Nvidia.
Microsoft has crossed all limits in emphasizing that the DirectWrite and Direct2D work will be helping the Web pages that currently exist with the programmers making no changes in the code. The Internet Explorer’s general manager, Dean Hachamovitch, contradicts that with the hardware acceleration efforts of O3D and Native Client from Google, the Khronos Group and the WebGL from Mozilla.
O3D, WebGL and Native Client are included in the long development list designed to renew the Web to form a foundation for interactive applications and static pages as well. But, these technologies need new programming tools and skills.
Google, Apple, Opera and Mozilla have been driving this agenda of interactive Web and Microsoft is also interested now. But, for the present, Microsoft is stressing on the fact that the Direct2D support will assist the Web that exists. They are keen on the interactive technology also. Direct2D can assist the complex sits which utilize 2D graphics interfaces like Canvas and SVG, the Mozilla stated. Schouten added that dynamic graphics is going to play an important role in user interfaces since the websites are becoming more intense graphically.
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