Microsoft Open Sources its JavaScript Engine

Apple recently open sourced its Swift programming language, but now Microsoft has decided to open source its JavaScript engine. This follows a trend where the large IT companies open source many technologies. Google and Facebook has done this for a while, but lately Microsoft and Apple have followed suit. Specifically, Microsoft is releasing the Chakra JavaScript engine that powers the Internet Explorer and Edge browsers. This follows the release of the .NET framework as open source.

According to Microsoft, both AMD and Intel have declared that they will contribute to the project. The hope from Microsoft is that Chakra will be used outside the scope of web browsers. Microsoft has for example used the engine to power its virtual assistant Cortana as well as Outlook.com. A port of Node.js that uses Chakra has furthermore been developed, instead of using Google’s V8 engine. Other usages could be NoSQL databases and game engines.

The source code for Chakra will be available on Microsoft’s GitHub page in January.