Consider that even here on HN we have one person who wrote their own HTML5 renderer, JS-like scripting language, CSS, etc from scratch (csmile). How do you figure that to go from that to what is needed to make a browser that renders sites properly you need to add more than 49 additional programmers?
Here's my estimate:
* A dozen build engineers to support development and builds for X client platforms
* A dozen engineers for the Javascript VM
* Dozens of engineers to support ongoing javascript and CSS standards
* A dozen engineers or more to support the firefox core
* Dedicated teams for Android, MacOS, Windows and Linux targets
* Dozens of Team/Programme/Project managers to _enable_ devs to do their best. These folks aren't optional.
* UX designers
* Graphical design artists
* Technical writers
> * A dozen engineers for the Javascript VM
> * Dozens of engineers to support ongoing javascript and CSS standards
Fabrice Bellard is a single person who in his free time has made a full modern JavaScript engine. Key parts: single person, free time.
I call bullshit that you need "dozens of engineers" to make a JavaScript engine - what you need to good engineers (and to ensure they stay around).
I'm not saying you're wrong. Just that you might not be right.
This doesn't even get into things like translations, technical writing (manuals, help pages, etc), infrastructure needed to actually deliver updates and downloads, collaboration on web standards, etc.
It is close enough to show that a web engine can be made by a single person even if it doesn't fully adhere to the standards and its functionality is certainly not less than 1/49th of what you'd need to go there.
> The "JS-like engine" is an excellent example. It turns out, you need an actual JS engine to run real websites, not a "JS-like" engine.
Fabrice Bellard has written (among many other things) a full modern JavaScript interpreter, again showing you do not need a "dozen" people (like another commented mentioned) to make such an interpreter.