Google facelifts the V8 JavaScript with cool new features!

Being a product of Google and an open-source resource, the V8 JavaScript engine is already transforming the server-side JavaScript development at a wide scale. Now the recently released version 5.1 is shipped with exciting cool new features that obviously improve the standard, support, performance and many other.

Web Assembly Portable Code Format

In the version 5.1 released by Google, is designated to accommodate Web Assembly portable code format. This is an incredulous attempt by the Google team to drastically improvise the Web performance of the script. With the help of bytecode format, the engine now eases the execution of the code in the web browsers. Google had said that "You can enable it via the flag --expose_wasm in d8. Alternatively, you can try out the WASM demos with Chrome 51, Beta Channel."

A counter move following Mozilla

The attempt to include the Web Assembly is perceived among the experts as a counter measure to dominate the browser adaptability of Chrome, as Mozilla had extended similar support with the help of SpiderMonkey JavaScript engine.

Compliance and Standards

V8 5.1 version is well-equipped to comply with the ECMAScript 2017 draft specification. This includes various features such as the ability to close the iterator, etc. "This can be used for clean-up duty after the iteration has finished," said the Google’s V8 team.

Overriding default behaviors

With the all new version, now the constructors used can incorporate overriding of default behavior with the help of a method known as ‘Symbol.hasInstance’. "Function names inferred for function expressions are now typically made available in the name property of functions, following the ES2015 formalization of these rules, it also gives useful names to properties and methods with computed property names." The team also said that these improvements may result in changes in existing stack traces.

Copying values

Also, the version 5.1 escalated the overall performance of JavaScript by including Object.assign, for copying values in enumerable own properties between various source and target objects. Array.prototype.join is another feature included for joining various elements in the array into a string.

Advanced Garbage Collection

V8 5.1 introduces more than just Orinoco garbage collector for garbage collection. It includes parallel young generation evacuation, scalable remembered sets, and black allocation. The garbage collector is related to the notion that by incorporating a mostly parallel and concurrent garbage collector without strict generational boundaries, the junk is drastically reduced in the garbage collection.