Microsoft will open up its Chakra JavaScript engine as an open-source project on GitHub next month.
The code repository, called ChakraCore, will include the key components of Chakra engine used for its Edge browser.
Like many other vendors, Microsoft built its own JavaScript engine in 2008 as the coding language became increasingly crucial to the Web and for many other uses, including mobile apps, cloud services, NoSQL databases, game engines and front-end tools.
Microsoft has applied Chakra in many Windows applications in Xboxes, its phones and operating system.
In a performance table, Microsoft claims that Chakra is faster than competing engines in Google’s Chrome and Mozilla’s Firefox browsers, as well as its own Internet Explorer 11 browser.
ChakraCore can stand on its own and is not dependent on components in the Edge browser in order to parse, interpret, compile or execute JavaScript.
ChakraCore will initially only be available for Windows when its released in January, but plans call for bringing it to other platforms. After the repository is available, Microsoft is going to provide guidance on its initial priorities.
“The community is at the heart of any open source project, so we look forward to the community cloning the repository, inspecting the code, building it, and contributing everything from new functionality to tests or bug fixes,” Microsoft wrote.