3 ms·

> Its a new way of writing "native"-adjacent multiplatform applications; the OS doesn't matter anymore. If only someone had thought about that before: a langua

> Its a new way of writing "native"-adjacent multiplatform applications; the OS doesn't matter anymore. If only someone had thought about that before: a language targeting a bytecode interpreter and an ecosystem of library sitting on top of the operating system in order to be able to run programs on any operating system. In a way we could call it a virtual machine as it makes the OS insignificant. Written like this it sounds like 1994 tech. A shame we had to wait so long...

anfilt 5y ago
Byte Code and VMs are are older than just 90's tech but okay. I still honestly prefer native code, but it does not work well for non-open source software unless the developer also compiles for other systems. Also windows is really the only major non-*nix OS these days. Although apples GUI software stack is still a pain port for when porting.
- 015a 5y ago
  Sure, its 20s tech (WASM), 10s tech (Web/PWA), 00s tech (Java), 90s tech (Java), 80s tech (Erlang/BEAM), jeeze even 50s tech (Lisp)... There are people who complain about how the industry is moving in cycles and how what's old is new again and how functional languages did that back in 1922. These people don't change the world; they just complain about how other people are changing it.
  - anfilt 5y ago
    Huh? I don't see how what I was saying was complaining? Sure things sometimes happen in cycles, I did not even mention that, but it is not necessarily a bad thing. VMs, and byte codes are a tool, and have their place. However, they do have their limitations compared to natively compiled code.
    - pjmlp 5y ago
      Like? Just because it is bytecode it doesn't mean it is interpreted. > Unlike some other virtual-machine architectures in which the virtual instructions are interpreted at run time, TIMI instructions are never interpreted. They constitute an intermediate compile time step and are translated into the processor's instruction set as the final compilation step. The TIMI instructions are stored within the final program object, in addition to the executable machine instructions. This is how application objects compiled on one processor family (e.g., the original CISC AS/400 48-bit processors) could be moved to a new processor (e.g., PowerPC 64-bit) without re-compilation. An application saved from the older 48-bit platform can simply be restored onto the new 64-bit platform where the operating system discards the old machine instructions and re-translates the TIMI instructions into 64-bit instructions for the new processor. From https://handwiki.org/wiki/IBM_System_i https://handwiki.org/wiki/IBM_System_i
robotresearcher 5y ago
Also LISP in 1958. It's a great idea that will always be around.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
lmm 5y ago
It's a great idea, but it will only work if it comes with a UI library that doesn't suck and a software distribution mechanism that doesn't suck. No-one wants to install "an app to run an app", so you need to distribute these applications as either native executables or something equally convenient, and it needs to be completely trivial for application developers to do that or they won't bother. That's the reason Electron is winning at the moment.

anfilt 5y ago

Byte Code and VMs are are older than just 90's tech but okay. I still honestly prefer native code, but it does not work well for non-open source software unless the developer also compiles for other systems. Also windows is really the only major non-*nix OS these days. Although apples GUI software stack is still a pain port for when porting.

015a 5y ago
Sure, its 20s tech (WASM), 10s tech (Web/PWA), 00s tech (Java), 90s tech (Java), 80s tech (Erlang/BEAM), jeeze even 50s tech (Lisp)... There are people who complain about how the industry is moving in cycles and how what's old is new again and how functional languages did that back in 1922. These people don't change the world; they just complain about how other people are changing it.
- anfilt 5y ago
  Huh? I don't see how what I was saying was complaining? Sure things sometimes happen in cycles, I did not even mention that, but it is not necessarily a bad thing. VMs, and byte codes are a tool, and have their place. However, they do have their limitations compared to natively compiled code.
  - pjmlp 5y ago
    Like? Just because it is bytecode it doesn't mean it is interpreted. > Unlike some other virtual-machine architectures in which the virtual instructions are interpreted at run time, TIMI instructions are never interpreted. They constitute an intermediate compile time step and are translated into the processor's instruction set as the final compilation step. The TIMI instructions are stored within the final program object, in addition to the executable machine instructions. This is how application objects compiled on one processor family (e.g., the original CISC AS/400 48-bit processors) could be moved to a new processor (e.g., PowerPC 64-bit) without re-compilation. An application saved from the older 48-bit platform can simply be restored onto the new 64-bit platform where the operating system discards the old machine instructions and re-translates the TIMI instructions into 64-bit instructions for the new processor. From https://handwiki.org/wiki/IBM_System_i https://handwiki.org/wiki/IBM_System_i

robotresearcher 5y ago

Also LISP in 1958. It's a great idea that will always be around.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

lmm 5y ago

It's a great idea, but it will only work if it comes with a UI library that doesn't suck and a software distribution mechanism that doesn't suck. No-one wants to install "an app to run an app", so you need to distribute these applications as either native executables or something equally convenient, and it needs to be completely trivial for application developers to do that or they won't bother. That's the reason Electron is winning at the moment.