Understanding Complexity Like an Engineer – The Case of the Ladybird Browser

They are building SerenityOS, a full-fledged operating system, and Ladybird, a web browser, from the ground up. That's all well and good, but you can't really build a serious web browser with all its complex features this way, right? Right? This is a story about how engineers approach complexity. This is excluding the browser engine and operating system underneath - that is, the software that is actually doing all the heavy lifting of making a website work. Modern browsers took decades and massive effort to develop, driven by companies like Google and Apple. Being curious, I tried the Ladybird browser myself to see if it was any good. There are JPEG images, so they got that sorted out The browser itself looks a bit like Safari - with tabs and an inspector no less - and a native macOS app. While the layout is still not what it should be, the browser does not crash and the website is actually usable.