A web browser engine, (sometimes called layout engine or rendering engine), is a software component that takes marked up content (such as HTML, XML, image files, etc.) and formatting information (such as CSS, XSL, etc.) and displays the formatted content on the screen. It "paints" on the content area of a window, which is displayed on a monitor or a printer. A layout engine is typically embedded in web browsers, e-mail clients, e-book readers, on-line help systems or other applications that require the displaying (and editing) of web content. Engines may wait for all data to be received before rendering a page, or may begin rendering before all data is received. This can result in pages changing as more data is received, such as images being filled in or a flash of unstyled content if rendering begins before formatting information is received.
Famous quotes containing the words web and/or engine:
“Any newspaper, from the first line to the last, is nothing but a web of horrors.... I cannot understand how an innocent hand can touch a newspaper without convulsing in disgust.”
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)
“The machine unmakes the man. Now that the machine is perfect, the engineer is nobody. Every new step in improving the engine restricts one more act of the engineer,—unteaches him.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)