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Comment by dwaite | Hacker News Reader

It isn't a power management API. AFAIK Chrome is bridging in its cross-platform rendering at a late stage into CALayer, and the internal functions override CoreAnimation's handling of redrawing dirty layers.

Similarly, it is using internal functions to map mach ports onto file descriptors because their cross-platform bits do not understand mach ports.

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Let’s be clear: they are important APIs that would allow non-Safari (WKWebView based really) browsers be competitive on macOS.

If GP is correct, that’s not the case. They are important APIs for someone who wants to maintain their cross-platform abstraction layer without muddying up their codebase.

This comment makes no sense to me.

How are Firefox and Chrome not competitive given that Safari isn't the overwhelmingly dominant browser ?

“On macOS” is the important part. Safari is by far the most battery friendly browser there and quite possibly has significant market share too. Mozilla has recently managed to reduce their consumption significantly using these APIs: https://mozillagfx.wordpress.com/2019/10/22/dramatically-red...

They are now because they both use those APIs. You can read about the impact of this specific one here:

https://mozillagfx.wordpress.com/2019/10/22/dramatically-red...

Before using those private APIs, with no other options to reach the same performance as Safari, both Chrome and Firefox were in a completely different league.

CALayer and IOSurface are not private...

CALayerHost and CAContext were listed in the offending apis in this rejection of an electron app https://github.com/electron/electron/issues/20027

Are those mentioned in the Mozilla post?

Firefox does not use CALayerHost. It uses the public IOSurface and CALayer.contents APIs.

https://mjtsai.com/blog/2019/11/04/electron-apps-rejected-fr...

It is ridiculous to say that Chrome/Firefox are only popular now because they use private APIs.

Your own article says that Firefox only recently started using them.

Which Apple may keep private for any number of reasons, none of which have to do with hobbling competitors, nor is it proven that Safari uses these particular APIs to gain a performance advantage for itself in any way whatsoever.

So you’re basically just talking out your ass, saying that Apple should open up APIs that have always been private for the sole purpose of helping a competitor who knowingly adopted them in violation of platform rules.

“Yes, officer, I broke the law. But I think, now that I’ve broken it, you should just abolish the particular laws that I broke because some people think I’m a big deal.”

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