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If web programmers had the choice to install an arbitrary language's runtime in users' browsers, they would. But users have disparate browsers with disparate JS
by osdiab 6y ago
If web programmers had the choice to install an arbitrary language's runtime in users' browsers, they would. But users have disparate browsers with disparate JS implementations, so if you want to code in a sane language with consistent behavior, you'll need to transpile and polyfill it.
You can't just distribute arbitrary binaries to users on the web, so web developers have to deal with a layer of complexity that other programs don't have to. That said, maybe WebAssembly will change this story.
- de_watcher 6y ago> web developers have to deal with a layer of complexity that other programs don't have to yep, other programs totally don't need to deal with different OS, graphics APIs, GPU driverstacks and hardware architectures.
- exogen 6y agoThose are all runtime concerns. They don't affect the literal syntax that you write, as is the case with JavaScript. You can't feature-detect syntax. Instead your entire program will just fail to parse.
- de_watcher 6y agoSo like shaders?