Boa (JavaScript engine)

{{Notability|date=October 2024}}

{{Infobox software

| name = Boa

| logo = Boa logo in black.svg

| logo size = 64px

| screenshot =

| developer = Boa Developers

| caption =

| author = [https://jason-williams.co.uk Jason Williams]

| released = {{start date and age|2019|6|10|df=y}}

| latest release version = v0.20{{cite web |title=Boa release v0.19 |url=https://boajs.dev/blog/2024/12/05/boa-release-020 |website=boajs.dev |language=en |date=5 December 2024}} / {{start date and age|2024|12|5|df=y}}

| latest release date = {{start date and age|{{wikidata|qualifier|single|P548=Q2804309|P348|P577}}}}

| programming language = Rust{{cite web |title=About Boa {{!}} Boa JS |url=https://boajs.dev/about |website=boajs.dev |publisher=Boa Developers |access-date=15 October 2024 |language=en}}

| platform = x86-64, 32-bit ARM, AArch64

| genre = JavaScript and WebAssembly engine

| license = MIT

| website = {{URL|https://boajs.dev}}

| repo = {{URL|https://github.com/boa-dev/boa}}

}}

Boa is an open-source JavaScript engine written in Rust. Boa was introduced at JSConf EU 2019 by Jason Williams.{{cite web |last1=Williams |first1=Jason |title=Let's build a JavaScript Engine in Rust by Jason Williams - JSConf EU 2019 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uD2pijcSi4 |website=YouTube |publisher=JS Conf EU |access-date=15 October 2024 |date=20 June 2019}}{{cite web |author1=Jason Williams |title=Let's build a JavaScript Engine |url=https://2019.jsconf.eu/jason-williams/lets-build-a-javascript-engine.html |website=2019.jsconf.eu |publisher=JS Conf EU |access-date=25 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240225094308/https://2019.jsconf.eu/jason-williams/lets-build-a-javascript-engine.html |archive-date=25 February 2024 |language=en}}

Williams created Boa in 2017 after working on Servo and being inspired by the "written from scratch" CSS engine.{{cite web |title=Hacking & Contributing to Servo On Windows – Mozilla Hacks - the Web developer blog |url=https://hacks.mozilla.org/2017/04/hacking-contributing-to-servo-on-windows/ |website=Mozilla Hacks – the Web developer blog}} He was eager to work on a JavaScript engine using Rust to learn more about how JavaScript implementations work, since then the project has had over 100 contributors.{{cite web |title=Contributors to boa-dev/boa |url=https://github.com/boa-dev/boa/graphs/contributors |website=GitHub |language=en}} Overtime the engine gained more prominent features such as bytecode compilation,{{cite web |title=Boa release v0.14 |url=https://boajs.dev/blog/2022/03/15/boa-release-14 |website=boajs.dev |language=en |date=15 March 2022}} better conformance to the specification and ergonomic API design.