A high school student built a functional browser engine from scratch in C++ over 8 weeks to understand how browsers work internally. The project implements HTML/CSS parsing, DOM tree construction, layout calculation, and rendering using Qt6. It covers the complete browser rendering pipeline: tokenization, DOM construction, style calculation (CSSOM), layout computation, and painting. The implementation supports core CSS properties, image loading with caching, navigation with history, and handles both block and inline layouts. Beyond technical achievements, the author emphasizes lessons in systematic debugging, persistence, pragmatism over perfection, and the importance of asking "why" when learning.
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TL;DRTable of ContentsKey FeaturesTech StackBuild & RunArchitectureSupported CSS PropertiesChallenges & SolutionsWhat I LearnedClosing Thoughts3 Comments
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