Microsoft Plans to Bring Smooth Scrolling to Chromium

Microsoft is proposing to bring the smooth scrolling functionality from its Edge web browser to Chromium.

“Scrollbar scrolling using the mouse happens on the main thread in Chromium,” Microsoft’s proposal explains. “If the main thread is busy, scrolling by clicking on the scrollbar will appear to be janky as the events keep getting queued up [and] wait for the main thread to free up. We observe on average scrollbar drags have [over double the] latency in Chromium as compared to EdgeHTML today, worse on particularly busy sites.  We attribute this gap primarily to EdgeHTML’s feature for off-thread scrollbar drags.  By avoiding the main thread in Chromium as well, we believe we can bring the performance of scrollbar drags more in line with what we observe in EdgeHTML.”

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This proposal is, of course, related to Microsoft’s adoption of Chromium as the basis for the next version of its Microsoft Edge web browser. And it’s the second such proposal that I’m aware: Back in December, the software giant revealed its plans to make Chromium—and thus the new Edge—compatible with Windows 10-based accessibility client apps.

The big difference here is that this proposed change, assuming Chromium’s handlers OK it, will impact all of the platforms on which Chromium—and other Chromium-based browsers—run, including (all supported versions of) Windows, Mac, Linux, Chrome OS, and Android.

Thanks to Sam for tipping me off to this.

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  • VancouverNinja

    Premium Member
    09 March, 2019 - 2:10 pm

    <p>As I said when this was announced "embrace, extend, …."</p><p><br></p>

  • jackthompson

    09 March, 2019 - 2:13 pm

    <p>No source?</p><p>groups(dot)google(dot)com/a/chromium.org/forum/#!msg/blink-dev/hwZCeiK4wR8/qZvGvW8WBwAJ</p><p>bugs(dot)chromium(dot)org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=938619&amp;can=1&amp;q=Microsoft&amp;sort=-id</p>

  • Bdsrev

    09 March, 2019 - 3:12 pm

    <p>But that's not what "smooth scrolling" is! And Chrome already has "smooth scrolling" on Windows since 2016. Smooth scrolling is when a user is scrolling with the wheel on their mouse, it "animates" (inserts frames) to make the movement more natural and easier for your eyes/brain to track. </p>

    • warren

      09 March, 2019 - 4:45 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#410671"><em>In reply to Bdsrev:</em></a></blockquote><p><br></p><p>You are correct…. but for the record, it's Paul who is calling this "smooth scrolling". He straight-up made that up.</p><p><br></p><p>Microsoft is using the term "threaded scrollbar scrolling", which is accurate.</p>

    • Mike Cramer

      09 March, 2019 - 9:33 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#410671">In reply to Bdsrev:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Microsoft plans to make "smooth scrolling" smooth. The rest is marketspeak.</p>

  • IanYates82

    Premium Member
    09 March, 2019 - 5:05 pm

    <p>Is there a link to that proposal (probably on the Chromium bug tracker?)</p>

  • MikeCerm

    09 March, 2019 - 5:52 pm

    <p>What interests me most is whether they fix the font rendering (smoothing) in Chromium or not. Text in Chrome looks so blurry and weak compared to the way text appears in Edge, Firefox, and all other browsers not based on Chromium. It's one of the top reasons I never switched to using Chrome full time. </p>

    • Tony Barrett

      09 March, 2019 - 7:05 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#410691">In reply to MikeCerm:</a></em></blockquote><p>Don't know what you're looking at, but text/font rendering in Chrome looks fine to me.</p>

      • codymesh

        10 March, 2019 - 1:17 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#410707">In reply to ghostrider:</a></em></blockquote><p>load the same page with the same text on Firefox/Edge and compare it to Chrome. The difference is night and day. It gets even more pronounced on higher DPI displays</p>

        • dontbe evil

          10 March, 2019 - 6:44 am

          <blockquote><em><a href="#410739">In reply to codymesh:</a></em></blockquote><p>he'll never do it, he'll just pretend that's fine</p>

    • JoePaulson

      10 March, 2019 - 10:36 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#410691">In reply to MikeCerm:</a></em></blockquote><p>I think you are complaining about how Chrome handles high DPI display scaling.</p>

    • Boris Zakharin

      11 March, 2019 - 11:14 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#410691">In reply to MikeCerm:</a></em></blockquote><p>That hasn't happened to me since Windows 8.1 (or maybe original Windows 10).</p>

  • Daekar

    09 March, 2019 - 6:32 pm

    <p>It would be nice to see this across all the Chrome derived browsers, Edge certainly does this better than Chrome does. If they can get the text rendering up to the Edge standard we will all be living the high life.</p>

  • thealcorp789

    10 March, 2019 - 5:27 am

    <p><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Microsoft</em><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> is proposing to bring the smooth scrolling</span><a href="https://www.thealcorp.com/&quot; target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> functionality</a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> thats very good news </span></p>

  • dontbe evil

    10 March, 2019 - 6:44 am

    <p>they should keep this edge only… google doesn't deserve it</p>

  • JoePaulson

    10 March, 2019 - 10:35 am

    <p>They could set it up so it is a compile time option for Chromium. That way if you are compiling for a resource limited platform it doesn't cause problems.</p>

  • dcdevito

    10 March, 2019 - 10:59 am

    <p>No doubt an advantage when the same vendor makes the OS. </p>

  • Bats

    10 March, 2019 - 11:25 am

    <p>Watch Google steal it…………..or use it to make theirs better.</p>

    • simont

      Premium Member
      10 March, 2019 - 12:41 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#410798">In reply to Bats:</a></em></blockquote><p>Since its going to open source project, its a donation</p>

    • locust infested orchard inc

      10 March, 2019 - 11:53 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#410798"><em>Quote by Bats, "Watch Google steal it…"</em></a></blockquote><p><br></p><p>As I often remark that Google is the master of Chrominality, your suggestion of theft by Google is nothing out of ordinary, for it is to be expected.</p><p><br></p><p>In this instance however, Microsoft are too generous – philanthropic as always.</p>

      • VancouverNinja

        Premium Member
        11 March, 2019 - 11:06 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#410936">In reply to locust infested orchard inc:</a></em></blockquote><p>Its not that simple. Microsoft now has a chance to drive the future direction of the browser; it will be interesting to see if this plays out. </p>

  • JerryH

    Premium Member
    10 March, 2019 - 11:43 am

    <p>This sounds good. But I wonder how much change from the Microsoft folks the Chromium maintainers are going to accept?</p>

  • AlexKven

    10 March, 2019 - 12:22 pm

    <p>This is great, but I wonder why they would give up the competitive advantage? Smooth scrolling (with touchi in particular) is one area where Internet Explorer on Windows 8 and Edge on Windows 10 was always much better than other browsers </p>

  • ChristopherCollins

    Premium Member
    10 March, 2019 - 2:33 pm

    <p>Thank goodness. I am not a fan on the way Chrome scrolls via my touchpad. It will be nice not to have to use Smooth Scroll to get the Edge feel. I will give Edge a try after the switch, but it's also nice to know Chrome will be improved as well.</p>

  • mrdrwest

    10 March, 2019 - 5:43 pm

    <p>Embrace: THEN EXTEND!!!!!!!</p>

    • VancouverNinja

      Premium Member
      11 March, 2019 - 11:04 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#410879">In reply to mrdrwest:</a></em></blockquote><p>It will be interesting to see who is "controlling" the direction of the browser over the next few years.</p>

  • matsan

    11 March, 2019 - 1:34 am

    <p>Wouldn't #1 prio be just to get it shipped and then start optimizing?</p>

    • lezmaka

      Premium Member
      11 March, 2019 - 11:25 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#410954">In reply to matsan:</a></em></blockquote><p>That strategy didn't work very well for Edge in the first place.</p>

  • noocyte

    14 March, 2019 - 7:59 am

    <p>Source link? </p>

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