3 ms·

I think you just solved the mystery I was wondering about... I bet Microsoft's endgame here is to create a new platform. Think about it, they're actually succee

by sbjs 8y ago

I think you just solved the mystery I was wondering about... I bet Microsoft's endgame here is to create a new platform. Think about it, they're actually succeeding in getting types added to every single JS package out there, slowly but surely. Eventually, there'll be no more need for the `any` and `unknown` types, which I bet are just transitional. Once all JS in the world is completely and fully typed, they will have enough type information to create a blazingly fast alternative compiler and (minimal) runtime, even faster than C#, maybe even rivaling C or C++. I mean they literally put the guy who made C# in charge of TypeScript and had him working on this language for several years now. I have no idea how they'll avoid the same mistakes they made with UWP, but I honestly bet they're making a new platform even right now as we speak, and that they're going to unveil it in a year or two.

ballenf 8y ago
Truly ignorant question here, what is a 'platform' in this context? (Or what could it be?)
- nine_k 8y ago
  A VM that replaces (or supersedes) JavaScript in the browser (and elsewhere).
  - mattferderer 8y ago
    Some believe that is the path of Web Assembly. That's still got a long ways to go though. In the meantime MS is working on compiling its languages to Web Assembly. It's most popular experiment is Blazor.
  - breatheoften 8y ago
    I think one of the reasons typescript has been able to get so good so fast as by having types _not_ control execution. Traditional type systems have a whole lot of requirements that arise because of the need for types to offer the currency that drives the code generation (and optimization) processes. I’m hoping the eventual way that typescript style typing helps with perf is by presenting new compilation modes that make it possible to detect at runtime places where the code executed (at runtime) might not be providing the performance that could be expected by the types (because of a lack of runtime deoptimization or lack of ability for runtime to specialize in the circumstances presented during the program’s execution). I think that could be a pretty powerful way forward — and very pragmatic given that the vast majority of code in any code base doesn’t need to be particularly fast ... I think what’s needed in this domain are (1) powerful tools to help maintain correctness (2) a smooth way to find and fix performance issues where they occur — and ideally by being able to write those fixes in the same language. I think those more useful features for a web scale language than a language that bends over backward in terms of expressivity to make “everything fast” ...
Nelkins 8y ago
Aha! A new platform, brilliant! And better yet, it could be a common runtime, for different languages to inter-operate! But what would they call it?! ;)
- copperx 8y ago
  Dot jNet.

by sbjs 8y ago

ballenf 8y ago

Truly ignorant question here, what is a 'platform' in this context? (Or what could it be?)

nine_k 8y ago
A VM that replaces (or supersedes) JavaScript in the browser (and elsewhere).
- mattferderer 8y ago
  Some believe that is the path of Web Assembly. That's still got a long ways to go though. In the meantime MS is working on compiling its languages to Web Assembly. It's most popular experiment is Blazor.
- breatheoften 8y ago
  I think one of the reasons typescript has been able to get so good so fast as by having types _not_ control execution. Traditional type systems have a whole lot of requirements that arise because of the need for types to offer the currency that drives the code generation (and optimization) processes. I’m hoping the eventual way that typescript style typing helps with perf is by presenting new compilation modes that make it possible to detect at runtime places where the code executed (at runtime) might not be providing the performance that could be expected by the types (because of a lack of runtime deoptimization or lack of ability for runtime to specialize in the circumstances presented during the program’s execution). I think that could be a pretty powerful way forward — and very pragmatic given that the vast majority of code in any code base doesn’t need to be particularly fast ... I think what’s needed in this domain are (1) powerful tools to help maintain correctness (2) a smooth way to find and fix performance issues where they occur — and ideally by being able to write those fixes in the same language. I think those more useful features for a web scale language than a language that bends over backward in terms of expressivity to make “everything fast” ...

Nelkins 8y ago

Aha! A new platform, brilliant! And better yet, it could be a common runtime, for different languages to inter-operate! But what would they call it?! ;)

copperx 8y ago
Dot jNet.