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It never felt like Google was really committed to Dart the way that Microsoft is going in on Typescript. My recollection is a little hazy, but I want to think D
by thrower123 8y ago
It never felt like Google was really committed to Dart the way that Microsoft is going in on Typescript. My recollection is a little hazy, but I want to think Dart originated in the Flash/Silverlight era, when plugins were still an accepted way to do things, then Chrome flirted with adding native runtime support reminiscent of ancient IE VBScript, then things pivoted to chasing the compile-to-JS trend after CoffeeScript popularized that approach, and now it seems to have pivoted again towards cross-platform native app development. Somewhere in there was also server-side programming as well. I get the sense there was never enough focus on any one thing to achieve critical mass.
- skybrian 8y agoNo, plugins were already on the way out when Dart was released. In short, some folks at Google had ambitions for Dart to eventually become a web standard with an interpreter built in to browsers, with compile-to-JavaScript used for the transition. That was a radical, unpopular idea and didn't happen even for Chrome, but Dart lives on as a nice compile-to-JavaScript language, and has new life on mobile due to Flutter. Microsoft had a much more conservative strategy with Typescript and executed on it better. Having modest goals was a big win there.