SOFTWARE DEVELOPER Google has integrated a native client into its latest Chrome beta allowing for complex applications to run within the web browser.
Google's decision to integrate a native client into its Chrome web browser enables it to run C and C++ code natively in the web browser, meaning full programs, not just Javascript code, can be run within Chrome. Obviously this could pose pretty serious security risks so Chris Rogers, a software engineer at Google was quick to say that all code would be run under the same restrictions as Javascript.
Google also provides a set of interfaces known as Pepper that offer C and C++ bindings for HTML5. This, Google says, will allow developers to make use of existing code to deliver high performance web applications with minor modifications.
While Javascript has done wonders to make web browsers hosts for general purpose applications, the fact is that Javascript's performance and capabilities are severely restricted compared to C and C++. Not only are there decades of experience in creating efficient binaries from these languages, but they also offer developers the chance to do far more while using fewer resources.
By putting a native client into Chrome, Google is making the web browser the single most important application in the operating system. There will now be even fewer reasons to minimise the web browser.