4 ms·

Zaphod - JavaScript written in JavaScript

57 points by j_baker 16y ago

tiles 16y ago
Give me an implementation of Harmony as described in http://brendaneich.com/2011/01/harmony-of-my-dreams/ http://brendaneich.com/2011/01/harmony-of-my-dreams/ in Narcissus, and I would certainly play around with this extension.
- pcwalton 16y ago
  This is one of the main goals of Narcissus and Zaphod, actually, since it's much easier to hack Narcissus than SpiderMonkey. We're working on integrating Harmony proposals into Narcissus.
tlrobinson 16y ago
In case you were already familiar with Narcissus, this appears to just be Narcissus packaged in a Firefox addon, not a new JavaScript implementation written in JavaScript as the title implies.
- j_baker 16y ago
  You're correct. To me, JavaScript in JavaScript that can run in the browser was the most important part (although I should have added "in the browser"). If I had called it "Zaphod - run Narcissus in firefox", it probably wouldn't have gotten anyone's attention.
ezalor 16y ago
Turtles all the way down (read Gödel, Escher, Bach)!
al_james 16y ago
Sorry, can someone please give an overview of what this is and how it works (I did not find any detailed examples on the site). My understanding is that its an alternative javascript engine that can be modified (using javascript itself I assume) and those modifications packaged and shared. Is that right? I was looking for an example of how you modify the engine and what can be modified. Any ideas?
- j_baker 16y ago
  http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla/source/js/narcissus/ http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla/source/js/narcissus/ Modify away.
  - al_james 16y ago
    Arh! I see. So, when if I install this extension, I can hack those files (in the extension's directory I assume) reload the browser and the javascript engine will do whatever I have changed?
    - voodootikigod 16y ago
      Try listening to Brendan Eich about what Mozilla is using Zaphod for, might give you some insight. Using Zaphod to make Harmony available today: http://www.aminutewithbrendan.com/pages/20110110 http://www.aminutewithbrendan.com/pages/20110110 General overview of Narcissus and Zaphod: http://www.aminutewithbrendan.com/pages/20101011 http://www.aminutewithbrendan.com/pages/20101011
  - pcwalton 16y ago
    That directory is out of date. (I'm not sure why it hasn't been removed yet.) The new project page is here: https://github.com/mozilla/narcissus https://github.com/mozilla/narcissus We moved it to GitHub to make it easier for people to submit pull requests and the like.
krosaen 16y ago
for those curious, this could provide similar benefits to javascript (or other dynamic) language experimentation that pypy does in python: http://codespeak.net/pypy/dist/pypy/doc http://codespeak.net/pypy/dist/pypy/doc

57 points by j_baker 16y ago

tiles 16y ago

Give me an implementation of Harmony as described in http://brendaneich.com/2011/01/harmony-of-my-dreams/ http://brendaneich.com/2011/01/harmony-of-my-dreams/ in Narcissus, and I would certainly play around with this extension.

pcwalton 16y ago
This is one of the main goals of Narcissus and Zaphod, actually, since it's much easier to hack Narcissus than SpiderMonkey. We're working on integrating Harmony proposals into Narcissus.

tlrobinson 16y ago

In case you were already familiar with Narcissus, this appears to just be Narcissus packaged in a Firefox addon, not a new JavaScript implementation written in JavaScript as the title implies.

j_baker 16y ago
You're correct. To me, JavaScript in JavaScript that can run in the browser was the most important part (although I should have added "in the browser"). If I had called it "Zaphod - run Narcissus in firefox", it probably wouldn't have gotten anyone's attention.

ezalor 16y ago

Turtles all the way down (read Gödel, Escher, Bach)!

al_james 16y ago

Sorry, can someone please give an overview of what this is and how it works (I did not find any detailed examples on the site). My understanding is that its an alternative javascript engine that can be modified (using javascript itself I assume) and those modifications packaged and shared. Is that right? I was looking for an example of how you modify the engine and what can be modified. Any ideas?

j_baker 16y ago
http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla/source/js/narcissus/ http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla/source/js/narcissus/ Modify away.
- al_james 16y ago
  Arh! I see. So, when if I install this extension, I can hack those files (in the extension's directory I assume) reload the browser and the javascript engine will do whatever I have changed?
  - voodootikigod 16y ago
    Try listening to Brendan Eich about what Mozilla is using Zaphod for, might give you some insight. Using Zaphod to make Harmony available today: http://www.aminutewithbrendan.com/pages/20110110 http://www.aminutewithbrendan.com/pages/20110110 General overview of Narcissus and Zaphod: http://www.aminutewithbrendan.com/pages/20101011 http://www.aminutewithbrendan.com/pages/20101011
- pcwalton 16y ago
  That directory is out of date. (I'm not sure why it hasn't been removed yet.) The new project page is here: https://github.com/mozilla/narcissus https://github.com/mozilla/narcissus We moved it to GitHub to make it easier for people to submit pull requests and the like.

krosaen 16y ago

for those curious, this could provide similar benefits to javascript (or other dynamic) language experimentation that pypy does in python: http://codespeak.net/pypy/dist/pypy/doc http://codespeak.net/pypy/dist/pypy/doc