History of Spider Monkey
Over the years, various components of Spider Monkey were added or rewritten, often with monkey-themed names:
- Trace Monkey: In 2008, Trace Monkey was introduced as Spider Monkey’s first just-in-time (JIT) compiler using trace trees for optimization.
- Jaeger Monkey: Also called Method JIT, Jaeger Monkey was a whole-method JIT compiler added in 2009 aimed at improving performance beyond Trace Monkey’s capabilities.
- Ion Monkey: Added in 2012, Ion Monkey was a more advanced optimizing JIT using traditional compiler techniques like SSA and in-lining. It replaced Jaeger Monkey.
- Odin Monkey: Introduced in 2013, Odin Monkey provided optimizations for asm.js code in Spider Monkey.
- Warp Monkey: The latest JIT engine added in 2021, Warp Monkey replaces Ion Monkey and applies optimizations based on observed runtime data and patterns.
How SpiderMonkey works in Mozilla Firefox Browser?
Brendan Eich created the first JavaScript engine called Spider Monkey as early as 1995. This is the JavaScript execution environment at the heart of the Firefox web browser. Spider Monkey is an old brand name that was used even during the early days of JavaScript itself. Brendan Eich authored the original JavaScript engine dubbed Mocha in 1995. In 1996, Mocha was rewritten and the new name became Spider Monkey because of the messy code base looking like the spindly spider arms.
Table of Content
- History of Spider Monkey:
- Components of Spider Monkey:
- How does Spider Monkey work?
- Features of Spider Monkey:
- Benefits of Spider Monkey