The latest JavaScript benchmark test, created by Douglas Crockford–the man who created the JSON library–tests the performance of major web browsers using “real” JavaScript applications. According to Crockford’s test, in spite of what many may believe, Microsoft IE 10 comes out on top.
Crockford’s benchmark test also showed that the Google Chrome browser, and its Crankshaft JavaScript engine are the slowest of all the major browsers tested. Crockford says that is because other tests don’t measure performance using real web applications and are simply not accurate.
Discussing the matter, Crockford states that “JSMeter: Measuring JavaScript Behavior in the Wild (PDF) showed that benchmarks are not representative of the behavior of real web applications. But lacking credible benchmarks, engine developers are tuning to what they have. The danger is that the performance of the engines will be tuned to non-representative benchmarks, and then programming styles will be skewed to get the best performance from the mistuned engines.”
