7 ms·

So let me get this straight. This is a mini-webserver written in Javascript running the terminal as a webapp in a mini-webbrowser, right? This makes sense why?

• cookiecaper 10y ago
  It makes sense because JavaScript has, through several bizarre turns of events, become the language du jour, which means all sort of clueless people are falling over themselves to abuse it in increasingly convoluted ways, so that the clueless people in corporate HR who've been told "We need someone who is a JavaScript rockstar!" can be wowed by the description of some nightmarish contraption that "really takes insane JavaScript chops". Language fads are very tiring.
  • jsjohnst 10y ago
    JavaScript has become the PHP of ten years ago. Runs everywhere (client and server), is the language picked up by beginners, and is abused to fit every square peg into a round hole.
    • stcredzero 10y ago
      Does it culminate with a cryptocash exchange written in it?
      • grep4master 10y ago
        This made my whole day. Time for bed.
    • cookiecaper 10y ago
      Can't wait for the general sentiment to turn to match. Whereas PHP has been sneered at by non-PHP devs since time immemorial, JavaScript is seeing widespread uptake by supposedly "senior" people across the spectrum. I've asked several of these people to explain the attraction (one of whom had a fascination with the even-worse CoffeeScript) and thus far I have not really come across a satisfactory explanation. To me, JavaScript is still the language you only use when you have to because it's the only runtime the browser vendors will embed.
      • stcredzero 10y ago
        I've asked several of these people to explain the attraction http://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/02/10/where-money-is/ http://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/02/10/where-money-is/ Javascript is a "workable" or "decent" language, and it happens to run where the users are. This is also a large part of why C++ was a success and C before it.
        • cookiecaper 10y ago
          This works when you're executing code "where the users are", as I conceded in the parent post (it's the language you use when you have to). It doesn't explain why they'd willingly switch away from another server-side language to re-implement the whole thing in server-side JavaScript.
          • stcredzero 10y ago
            Because it's the same code as the client, which is "where the users are." I guess you'd assert that having the same language on the client and server doesn't justify the cost of using the language.
            • cookiecaper 10y ago
              Correct. This argument, IMO, is mainly made by programmers who are afraid of working in more than one language at once, traditionally .NET developers who are used to an entire, ready-made, tied-up-in-a-bow ecosystem being dropped on their doorstep. I have a lot of trouble sympathizing with that perspective (even though I've had multiple jobs as a full-time .NET developer). JavaScript is not good. We should be working to get it out of the way, not converting everything in our environments to run on it.
          • debaserab2 10y ago
            I can't really defend their language choice perse, but if you look at the aims of the project - make a terminal that's consistent across platforms and focuses on extendability and interface, what IS your best option? Writing natively for each platform doesn't seem feasible. Using something browser based that has many of those cross platform kinks ironed out doesn't seem like that bad of a choice if that's your top priority. Whether or not that makes it a solid, durable terminal program is another question, though.
  • VeejayRampay 10y ago
    You know what's tiring? People getting out of their way to gratuitously criticize the collective effort of a coordinated group of passionate people who just want to have fun reinventing the wheel.
    • meddlepal 10y ago
      You know what's tiring have to over time be forced to use or maintain people's poor decision to reinvent the wheel.
      • stcredzero 10y ago
        Don't complain. Figure out how to charge consulting fees!
    • nix0n 10y ago
      > passionate people who just want to have fun reinventing the wheel Maybe instead of building square wheels they should work on improving some of the existing round wheels.
      • zeven7 10y ago
        Some people make round wheels better. Some people try to create a better wheel than a round one. Both types are usually good for society. The former is most likely to yield any results at all; the latter, when it yields any results, is most likely to produce massive steps forward. Where would we be if Einstein had spent all his time trying to improve Newton's gravity rather than reinventing it?
        • valarauca1 10y ago
          Where would we be if Einstein had spent all his time trying to improve Newton's gravity rather than reinventing it? Einstein did just set out to improve Newtonian Mechanics. Special Relativity is just Newtonian Mechanics over the Lorentz Transform. General Relativity is the implication of Special Relativity being true, generalized for all observers. Einstein's approach was very much step 1, just repeated 2-3 times. Special Relativity didn't necessarily destroy Newton's gravity. To be generalized in GR gravity had to stop being force. It was just a natural implication of a prior step. The idea you can chase a total alien solution nobody supports and pull complete magic out of thin air is rarely true. Normally it is just a myth created by people who don't actually understand the solution or process that attained it.
  • stcredzero 10y ago
    the language du jour, which means all sort of clueless people are falling over themselves to abuse it in increasingly convoluted ways That's simply how the programming "field" works. Also in the category of "how it works": People grousing about it. (Seriously, that is the way it works, and do we dare suppose there is a better way?)
• kowdermeister 10y ago
  This makes sense because the authors were comfortable writing apps this way. At least they started it on a stack that has the potential to be multi platform. I see way too many nice / stylish apps released as OSX only.
  • sdegutis 10y ago
    On the other hand, it's really hard to make a closed-source app that you can sell, and still make it cross-platform.
    • kowdermeister 10y ago
      I don't think if you plan ahead it would be to disaster to maintain. We have tools like QT or Skia that help you create native cross platform UI-s. I agree that the dev experience is a light-year ahead with CSS+JS, I've done it before, but once you go down that road, it's close to impossible to switch without a serious rewrite. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but something to keep in mind.
  • imtringued 10y ago
    But it's only the potential. In practice you still have to depend on the vendor to decide to support your OS.
• Jizzle 10y ago
  Looks like it is using the electron framework http://electron.atom.io/ http://electron.atom.io/ To be sure, JavaScript can sometimes be fairly terrible as the scope of projects grow. The advantage here is how easily rich (or even absurd) UI elements can be implemented across all platforms by using web technologies. It also makes it comparatively easy to create a platform that is highly customizable and pluggable.
• OhSoHumble 10y ago
  I'm excited because that would still be better than the terminals currently available for Windows.