A technology preview version of Google's browser lets programmers try Dart, Google's attempt to improve on JavaScript's shortcomings. Google today made Mac and Linux binaries available that integrate the Dart VM into Chromium.

"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," said Google programmers Anton Muhin, Vijay Menon, and Pavel Podivilov, in a blog post.

Dart has been designed from the start to work with the entire modern web, and Google is simultaneously continuing to improve its 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, Google plans to eventually include the Dart VM in Chrome.

"Today's release of the Chromium + Dart VM integration is another step forward for the open source "batteries included" Dart platform. Our goal is to help you build complex, high performance apps for the modern web," Google programmers added.

Google developed Dart as a way to improve Web programming, for example with better performance and with a language it thinks is better suited to large-scale Web applications.