This week, Google released a new test version of its Chrome browser, which can apparently run programs written in the company’s Dart programming language.

From the Google Code blog:

This technology preview allows you to run your Dart programs directly on the Dart VM in Chromium and avoid a separate compilation step. Over time, these programs will take advantage of the VM’s faster performance and lower startup latency.

Dart has been designed from the start to work with the entire modern web, and we’re simultaneously continuing to improve our fast Dart-to-JavaScript compiler. Both the Dart VM and modern JavaScript engines are first-class targets for Dart.

This release of Chromium with Dart VM integration is a technology preview, and should not be used for day-to-day browsing. After more testing and developer feedback, we plan to eventually include the Dart VM in Chrome.

Ryan Paul at Ars Technica describes how Dartium, the name given to the new test browser, houses an integrated Dart virtual machine, and “is the first browser that can run Dart code that hasn't first been converted to JavaScript.”

From Ars Technica:

Dart is a new programming language that Google is developing for client-side Web scripting. The language has a more conventional object model than JavaScript and optional support for static typing, features that Google claims will allow it to be faster, safer, and more conducive to tooling than JavaScript. Much like Microsoft's VBScript, Dart is a nonstandard client language that is developed and supported by a single vendor outside of the Web standards process.

Last month, Paul Krill at InfoWorld wrote that Brendah Eich, the inventor of JavaScript and current CTO of Mozilla, had some harsh words for Dart. According to the article, Google created Dart to “to address JavaScript's supposed weaknesses.”

From InfoWorld, via NetworkWorld:

While admiring Google's efforts to make the Document Object Model more usable as part of Dart, Eich was skeptical about its chance for support in browsers. "Dart is one of the many languages that currently compiles to JavaScript, and that's a lot to say about that because like in Native Client from Google, I don't think Dart is going to be natively supported ever in other browsers. Not in Safari, not in IE (Internet Explorer)," said Eich, who is CTO at Mozilla, at the Node Summit conference in San Francisco on Wednesday. JavaScript has been supported in popular browsers, including Mozilla's own Firefox browser.