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> Much of computing in the very near future will be built on two languages: Rust and JavaScript. It will be interesting to see if this prediction pans out. The
by celeritascelery 6y ago
> Much of computing in the very near future will be built on two languages: Rust and JavaScript.
It will be interesting to see if this prediction pans out. There have been similar predictions about C++, Java, TCL, php, Perl, etc. it seems “the one true language” never emerges, but it is just around the corner. Though I really hope the future is more polyglot, because that is just way more fun.
- bitwize 6y ago> Though I really hope the future is more polyglot, because that is just way more fun. I hope so too, but... I've worked with people who really don't want to touch anything besides JavaScript. Such people could be coaxed to use Rust to write kernel drivers and the like, due to its safety guarantees -- but not C, nor C++. JavaScript is in everything. Both of the major DEs for Linux embed JavaScript interpreters. Microsoft is adding it to their office suite, to coexist with and eventually supplant VBA. Inasmuch as developers are still writing desktop apps, odds are good they're Electron apps. It's as near to a universal language as we've had in decades. Instructions are being added to ARM to better support JavaScript. The dream of the Lisp machine (which Emacs to some extent embodies) is dead. Computers of the future will be, largely, JavaScript machines.
- anthk 6y ago- TCL and LUA interpreters are everywhere, too. - On JS machines, I doubt it, because if some better language it's better than JS, that could yield to huge losses to ARM CPU producers. And that will happen, sooner or later. >I hope so too, but... I've worked with people who really don't want to touch anything besides JavaScript. These people are professionaly dead if they want to create something more performant than a bullshit, slow JS application. QT5 it's being used in LOTS of professional software. Not even WASM Google Earth can be close to the performance of Google Earth Pro used in offices for professional tasks.
- bambataa 6y agoIs someone who only wants to write JavaScript really going to be coaxed to write kernel drivers in any language? Yes there is a dominant JS crowd, but I don’t really see why they should affect what developers in other areas choose.
- anthk 6y agoThese people are delusional, they think they can do low level device driver thinkering with just JS... Eh, no. Not even close. Back in the day I wrote a personal patch for BTTV in order to support my video card with different tuner and radio settings. It was damn hard for a C newbie like me. For these people it would be a nightmare.
- Ar-Curunir 6y agoYeah, and now imagine if you didn’t have to worry about simple things like memory safety or overflow or null pointer checks or so many C problems that Rust fixes. The point of Rust is to enable newbies to write systems software.
- anthk 6y ago>That's what Go has been built for, but if you trust a newbie writting low level stuff, bad shit will happen either sooner or later.
- Ar-Curunir 6y agoSo the solution is what, exactly? To isolate people and gatekeep them from learning systems programming?
- anthk 6y agoYes? This is a meritocracy, if don't know how to do low level stuff, head to the College, or learn it properly.
- blacktriangle 6y agoAm I the only one that thinks JavaScript is living on borrowed time? Once webasm matures and has a consistent story for DOM interop, JS will lose its status as the language we all have to know and be forced to compete head to head based on its merits. I wouldn't bet on JS in that scenario.