Every six weeks, we create a new branch of V8 as part of our release process. Each version is branched from V8’s Git master immediately before a Chrome Beta milestone. Today we’re pleased to announce our newest branch, V8 version 8.1, which is in beta until its release in coordination with Chrome 81 Stable in several weeks. V8 v8.1 is filled with all sorts of developer-facing goodies. This post provides a preview of some of the highlights in anticipation of the release.

JavaScript #

Intl.DisplayNames #

The new Intl.DisplayNames API lets programmers display translated names of languages, regions, scripts, and currencies with ease.

const zhLanguageNames = new Intl.DisplayNames(['zh-Hant'], { type: 'language' });
const enRegionNames = new Intl.DisplayNames(['en'], { type: 'region' });
const itScriptNames = new Intl.DisplayNames(['it'], { type: 'script' });
const deCurrencyNames = new Intl.DisplayNames(['de'], {type: 'currency'});

zhLanguageNames.of('fr');
// → '法文'
enRegionNames.of('US');
// → 'United States'
itScriptNames.of('Latn');
// → 'latino'
deCurrencyNames.of('JPY');
// → 'Japanischer Yen'

Shift the burden of translation data maintenance to the runtime today! See our feature explainer for details on the full API and more examples.

V8 API #

Please use git log branch-heads/8.0..branch-heads/8.1 include/v8.h to get a list of the API changes.

Developers with an active V8 checkout can use git checkout -b 8.1 -t branch-heads/8.1 to experiment with the new features in V8 v8.1. Alternatively you can subscribe to Chrome’s Beta channel and try the new features out yourself soon.